Dr Stéphane GAYET
Strasbourg, France
Biography
Abstract
Care activities are generally dense, often technically sensitive and dangerous. Many healthcare professionals are frequently interrupted during an act of care. This is both dangerous and a waste of time, and therefore of productivity. It is estimated that there are approximately seven task interruptions per hour per caregiver in the broad sense. The care professionals who are most interrupted in their work are nursing caregivers. The duration of a task interruption is often short: a few minutes at most, but this is enough to disrupt everything. Interrupted tasks are mainly medication preparations, medication administrations, as well as care preparations and realizations. Task interruptions are too often trivialized. Yet they are risky and disruptive. A task interruption causes stress that disrupts brain activity. The brain tries to keep in memory what it was doing, while trying to respond as well as possible to the solicitation that interrupted it. In reality, both tasks are systematically altered. Each task interruption carries a serious and potentially serious risk of error that averages 14%, which is far too high. Task interruptions are almost always linked to a deficient organisation, the care unit or service, a lack of rigour and discipline and a trivialization of care activities which are often critical. Strict and mandatory rules must be introduced to combat interruptions in work. In particular, brightly coloured vests marked "do not disturb" should be worn when necessary. When necessary, a sign must be placed on the doors of rooms marked "do not disturb". It is a matter of safety culture, discipline and mutual respect. The ability to interrupt a task should not be a privilege of physicians or nurse leaders.