Observational study of junior doctors’ activity during ward rounds
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A pilot study to develop observational methods of describing junior doctors’ activity during ward rounds
IRAS ID
131432
Contact name
Julia Allan
Contact email
Research summary
Medical careers are stressful, and high levels of stress can affect junior doctors’ health, their desire to remain in the profession and the care they provide as a result of clinical errors. A flash point for errors may be ward rounds as during this time, junior doctors are likely to experience high workload, interruptions and pressure from other staff and have to write the majority of their prescriptions. This project aims to systematically study the behaviour of junior doctors during ward rounds to determine the most robust, acceptable and feasible method of assessing: (a) the tasks junior doctors perform, (b) situational factors that may increase error risk (eg interruptions, the number and stability of the staff on the ward round, conflicting demands etc), (c) whether any prescribing decisions were made. We shall develop an observational coding scheme from an established measure of the clinical activities that doctors perform and which we currently use to code nurses’ ward work. An observer will use a small hand held computer (PDA) to record what happens during ward rounds. This will be tested in 20 ward rounds with 10 junior doctors who will subsequently be interviewed about their experiences of ward rounds, identifying any specific stressors.
REC name
North of Scotland Research Ethics Committee 1
REC reference
13/NS/0068
Date of REC Opinion
11 Jul 2013
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion