Extraneous Load, Patient Census, and Patient Acuity Correlate With Cognitive Load During ICU Rounds
Authors' conclusion
Increased extraneous load, new patients, and patient acuity were associated with higher cognitive load during ICU rounds.
Study context
- Population
- Multidisciplinary providers during ICU rounds32 rounds
- Participants
- 76 participants
- Outcome
- Provider cognitive load (provider task load [provider task load (PTL)] score, derived from NASA Task Load Index)
- Follow-up
- After rounds
Methodological detailsmultisite, mixed-effects modeling, December 2020 to May 2021
- Multisite
- Mixed-effects modeling
- December 2020 to May 2021
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Factors associated with PTL score (adjusted for covariates)
Hourly extraneous load events: slope
2.40
95% CI 0.76–4.04
Number of new patients: slope
5.23
95% CI 2.02–8.43
Number of higher acuity patients: slope
3.35
95% CI 1.34–5.35
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Rounding characteristics and extraneous load
- Mean rounding census ± SD (patients)
- 12.5 ± 2.9
- Mean rounding time ± SD
- 2 h 17 min ± 49 min
- Mean extraneous load ± SD (events per hour)
- 20.5 ± 4.5
- Distractions per hour
- 8.6 ± 3.4
- Communication deviations per hour
- 8.2 ± 4.2
- Repetitions per hour
- 1.9 ± 1.4
- Episodes of split-attention per hour
- 1.8 ± 1.3
- One event every 2 min 51 s
Original publication
Extraneous Load, Patient Census, and Patient Acuity Correlate With Cognitive Load During ICU Rounds. Chest. Published 4 January 2024. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →