Simulation for Operating Room Ergonomics

The Operating Room (OR) is a complex environment with many ergonomic stresses, including those related to patient movement, operative/anesthetic equipment, and surgical bed positioning. Systematic assessments of OR workload have shown that physical demands are at least as high as mental demands for OR teams.

Poor ergonomic management contributes to the high rate of musculoskeletal symptoms (e.g. neck stiffness and back pain) reported by surgeons, OR nurses, and anesthesiologists. These symptoms impact attentional resources and decision-making, increasing the risk of errors and complications. Furthermore, work-related musculoskeletal disorders lead to absenteeism, reduced career longevity, and burnout.

Ergonomic recommendations and interventions for OR staff, including table height adjustments, patient positioning, and placement of equipment, have been developed and proven effective. However, their usefulness is limited by a general lack of awareness and education among OR teams. Despite this, few formalized ergonomic education programs exist.

Furthermore, existing education programs address ergonomics at the individual-level only, and do not consider the interprofessional team environment, potentially limiting effectiveness. Team influence on ergonomics is reliant on non-technical skills such as communication and situational awareness. However, a busy OR environment, where the focus is rightly on patient safety, does not lend itself well to teaching ergonomic principles or providing live feedback. Fortunately, simulation-based training has repeatedly been shown to be an effective teaching tool for such skills. Simulation-based training is also generally positively perceived by medical learners.

With regard to ergonomics specifically, there is emerging evidence that simulation-based teaching can lead to improvements in focused areas of care, such as patient transfer. However, there is currently no simulation curriculum to teach operative ergonomics overall or as a team-based approach. Thus, comprehensive, interprofessional educational programs are needed to increase both awareness and application of ergonomics in the OR. Our study will build an interprofessional, team simulation curriculum involving surgery, anesthesiology, and nursing staff and trainees to address this critical gap in training.

Objectives

• Assess the perceived and unperceived ergonomic needs of OR teams (surgical, anesthesiology, and nursing staff and trainees).
• Develop and pilot an interdisciplinary OR ergonomics simulation curriculum for OR teams.

This exploratory study will take part in 2 Phases.

In Phase I, an interprofessional working group with representatives from surgery, anesthesiology, nursing, physiotherapy, chiropractic, medical education, simulation, and human factors engineering will identify gaps in OR ergonomics to inform the creation of the curriculum. Three strategies will be used to identify problems and assess needs in OR ergonomics: 1) initial literature review; 2) semi-structured stakeholder interviews, 3) direct observation of OR teams performing surgical procedures.

Phase II will involve development and piloting of the educational simulation curriculum with OR teams.

Inclusion criteria

• Member of an OR team (surgery, anesthesiology or nursing staff or trainee) at Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre

Exclusion criteria

• Lack of informed consent