@article{2217,
  keywords = {Hospital, Medical errors/prevention and control, Medical staff, Multi-tasking},
  author = {Heather E. Douglas and Magdalena Z. Raban and Scott R. Walter and Johanna I. Westbrook},
  title = {Improving our understanding of multi-tasking in healthcare: Drawing together the cognitive psychology and healthcare literature.},
  abstract = {<p>Multi-tasking is an important skill for clinical work which has received limited research attention. Its impacts on clinical work are poorly understood. In contrast, there is substantial multi-tasking research in cognitive psychology, driver distraction, and human-computer interaction. This review synthesises evidence of the extent and impacts of multi-tasking on efficiency and task performance from health and non-healthcare literature, to compare and contrast approaches, identify implications for clinical work, and to develop an evidence-informed framework for guiding the measurement of multi-tasking in future healthcare studies. The results showed healthcare studies using direct observation have focused on descriptive studies to quantify concurrent multi-tasking and its frequency in different contexts, with limited study of impact. In comparison, non-healthcare studies have applied predominantly experimental and simulation designs, focusing on interleaved and concurrent multi-tasking, and testing theories of the mechanisms by which multi-tasking impacts task efficiency and performance. We propose a framework to guide the measurement of multi-tasking in clinical settings that draws together lessons from these siloed research efforts.</p>},
  year = {2017},
  journal = {Appl Ergon},
  volume = {59},
  pages = {45-55},
  month = {03/2017},
  issn = {1872-9126},
  doi = {10.1016/j.apergo.2016.08.021},
  language = {eng},
}