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Use of eye tracking in analyzing distribution of visual attention among critical care nurses in daily professional life: an observational study.

ABSTRACT: Patient safety is a priority in healthcare, yet it is unclear how sources of errors should best be analyzed. Eye tracking is a tool used to monitor gaze patterns in medicine. The aim of this study was to analyze the distribution of visual attention among critical care nurses performing non-simulated, routine patient care on invasively ventilated patients in an ICU. ICU nurses were tracked bedside in daily practice. Eight specific areas of interest were pre-defined (respirator, drug preparation, medication, patient data management system, patient, monitor, communication and equipment/perfusors). Main independent variable and primary outcome was dwell time, secondary outcomes were hit ratio, revisits, fixation count and average fixation time on areas of interest in a targeted tracking-time of 60 min. 28 ICU nurses were analyzed and the average tracking time was 65.5 min. Dwell time was significantly higher for the respirator (12.7% of total dwell time), patient data management system (23.7% of total dwell time) and patient (33.4% of total dwell time) compared to the other areas of interest. A similar distribution was observed for fixation count (respirator 13.3%, patient data management system 25.8% and patient 31.3%). Average fixation time and revisits of the respirator were markedly elevated. Apart from the respirator, average fixation time was highest for the patient data management system, communication and equipment/perfusors. Eye tracking is helpful to analyze the distribution of visual attention of critical care nurses. It demonstrates that the respirator, the patient data management system and the patient form cornerstones in the treatment of critically ill patients. This offers insights into complex work patterns in critical care and the possibility of improving work flows, avoiding human error and maximizing patient safety.

SUBMITTER: Hofmaenner DA

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7724778 | biostudies-literature |

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Project description:BackgroundCognitive ergonomics design of patient monitoring may reduce human factor errors in high-stress environments. Eye-tracking is a suitable tool to gain insight into the distribution of visual attention of healthcare professionals with patient monitors, which may facilitate their further development.MethodsThis prospective, exploratory, high-fidelity simulation study compared anesthesia personnel's visual attention (fixation count and dwell-time) to 15 areas of interest on the patient monitor during non-critical and critical anesthesia situations. Furthermore, we examined the extent to which participants' experience influenced visual attention and which vital signs displayed on the patient monitor received the most visual attention. We used mixed zero-inflated Poisson regression and mixed linear models to analyze the data.ResultsAnalyzing 23 ten-minute scenarios, we found significantly more fixations to the areas of interest on the patient monitor during critical than non-critical situations (rate ratio of 1.45; 95% CI 1.33 to 1.59; p < 0.001). However, the dwell-time on the areas of interest did not significantly differ between the non-critical and critical situations (coefficient of - 1.667; 95% CI - 4.549 to 1.229; p = 0.27). The professional experience did not significantly influence the visual attention (fixation: rate ratio of 0.88; 95% CI 0.54 to 1.43; p = 0.61 and dwell-time: coefficient of 0.889; 95% CI - 1.465 to 3.229; p = 0.27). Over all situations, anesthesia personnel paid the most attention to the vital signs blood pressure (fixation: mean [SD] of 108 [74.83]; dwell-time: mean [SD] of 27 [15.90] seconds), end-expiratory carbon dioxide (fixation: mean [SD] of 59 [47.39]; dwell-time: mean [SD] of 30 [21.51] seconds), and the electrocardiogram (fixation: mean [SD] of 58 [64.70]; dwell-time: mean [SD] of 15 [14.95] seconds).ConclusionsCritical anesthesia situations increased anesthesia personnel's visual interaction with the patient monitor. Furthermore, we found that their visual attention focused mainly on a few vital signs. To assist clinicians in critical situations, manufacturers should optimize monitors to convey necessary information as easily and quickly as possible and optimize the visibility of less frequently observed but equally critical vital signs, especially when they are in an abnormal range.

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Use of eye tracking in analyzing distribution of visual attention among critical care nurses in daily professional life: an observational study.

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