None listed
Conditions
Brief summary
This is a study of decision making and bias, as it relates to care in the intensive care unit. Participants are ICU staff, they will be recruited at handover after a night shift to give a fatigued group (end of night shift) and a non-fatigued group (start of day shift). Participants will be allocated to one of two questionnaires (A&B) which are identical in terms of the hypothetical clinical scenarios, but differ in terms of the social status of the hypothetical patient. For example, a case might describe a patient who has been involved in an MVA with severe injuries necessitating ICU support, but in Questionnaire A the patient would be a policeman chasing a violent criminal and in B the patient IS the violent criminal. Participants will be asked to rate the "risk" of the scenario on a 10 point likert scale, then rate their degree of agreement with an aggressive treatment strategy and a limited treatment strategy We hypothesize that participants risk assessment and treatment strategies will significantly differ between the groups. We also hypothesize that these differences will be exaggerated when participants are fatigued.
Interventions
Participants (ICU staff nurses, doctors, physios) are recruited at handover and assigned to one of two questionnaires. These present ICU clinical scenarios with hypothetical patients. Between the 2 questionnaires the clinical information is identical but the hypothetical patients differ in terms of social factors: Age, race, employment, drug use, body weight. Participants are asked to assess the scenario in terms of risk and then give their opinion on aggressive or limited therapy on a 10pt like
Participants (ICU staff nurses, doctors, physios) are recruited at handover and assigned to one of two questionnaires. These present ICU clinical scenarios with hypothetical patients. Between the 2 questionnaires the clinical information is identical but the hypothetical patients differ in terms of social factors: Age, race, employment, drug use, body weight. Participants are asked to assess the scenario in terms of risk and then give their opinion on aggressive or limited therapy on a 10pt likert scale. The participants will be recruited at morning handover in ICU allowing for a "fatigued" (post night shift) and "non-fatigued" (pre day shift) population. Data will be collected on number of night shifts worked in the previous 7 days. The questionnaire takes roughly 10 mins to complete
Sponsors
Royal Perth Hospital
Study design
Allocation
Randomised controlled trial
Intervention model
Parallel
Primary purpose
Educational / counselling / training
Masking
Blinded (masking used) (Subject, Caregiver)
Eligibility
Sex/Gender
All
Age
18 Years to No maximum
Healthy volunteers
Yes
Inclusion criteria
Current employee of health service, working in royal perth ICU as a doctor, nurse or physiotherapist. Provides consent
Exclusion criteria
Lack of fluency in written english
Outcome results
None listed