Observations of surgical operations

Surgical operations in a major hospital were observed and video recorded. Data coding involved transcription of sequences of instrument requests by surgeons and responses to these requests by nurses. A total of 1649 such pairs were identified. For each request and response we transcribed what was said (e.g. ‘Scissors please’) and what bodily actions (e.g. ‘passes scissors’) were performed. InqScribe was used to time-code the logged events, producing a detailed transcript of each operation.<p>The project aims to explore ways to improve the quality and safety of surgical care through systematic observations of communication in the operating theatre. The research looks at communication between and among the range of health professionals involved in surgical care, including surgeons, nurses, anaesthetists, Operation Department Practitioners, and others.
The focus is on communication in ‘transient’ teams–that is, teams of health professionals who are assembled on the day, and who may not have not worked together before. Such teams are increasingly common in the National Health Service and elsewhere. In transient teams health professionals are more likely to encounter problems of understanding the verbal and non-verbal behaviour of colleagues.
The study systematically analyses audio and video records of communication before, during and after surgical operations. It examines problems of communication as well as the instances where interaction is highly effective.
The outcomes of the research will be fed back to health professionals and communication experts. Video clips of critical instances of effective and ineffective communication will be discussed in inter-professional workshops and they will feed into multimedia learning resources that will be made freely available.</p>