How can we better prepare new doctors for the tasks and challenges of ward rounds?: An observational study of junior doctors' experiences.

PURPOSE: Ward rounds play a crucial role in the delivery of patient care in inpatient settings, but involve a complex mix of tasks, skills and challenges for junior doctors to negotiate. This study informs the development of high-quality training by identifying the activities that junior doctors perform, and those associated with stress during real-life ward rounds. MATERIALS AND METHODS: All activities performed by FY1 doctors (n = 60) over 2 ward rounds were coded in real-time by a trained observer using the work observation method by activity timing (WOMBAT). Doctors' heart rate was continuously recorded and non-metabolic peaks in heart rate used as a physiological indicator of stress. RESULTS: During ward rounds, FY1 doctors commonly engaged in indirect patient care, professional communication, documentation and observation. Very little time was spent on direct patient care (6%) or explicit supervision/education (0.01%). Heart rate data indicated that stress was highest during administrative tasks while interacting directly with patients while stepping out of rounds to complete personal tasks, when answering bleeps and while multi-tasking. CONCLUSIONS: Training that specifically covers the activities involved, skills required, and challenges inherent in real-life ward rounds may better prepare FY doctors for this complex area of practice.

Why does work cause fatigue? A real-time investigation of fatigue, and determinants of fatigue in nurses working 12-hour shifts.

BACKGROUND: One of the striking regularities of human behavior is that a prolonged physical, cognitive, or emotional activity leads to feelings of fatigue. Fatigue could be due to (1) depletion of a finite resource of physical and/or psychological energy or (2) changes in motivation, attention, and goal-directed effort (e.g. motivational control theory). PURPOSE: To contrast predictions from these two views in a real-time study of subjective fatigue in nurses while working. METHODS: One hundred nurses provided 1,453 assessments over two 12-hr shifts. Nurses rated fatigue, demand, control, and reward every 90 min. Physical energy expenditure was measured objectively using Actiheart. Hypotheses were tested using multilevel models to predict fatigue from (a) the accumulated values of physical energy expended, demand, control, and reward over the shift and (b) from distributed lag models of the same variables over the previous 90 min. RESULTS: Virtually all participants showed increasing fatigue over the work period. This increase was slightly greater when working overnight. Fatigue was not dependent on physical energy expended nor perceived work demands. However, it was related to perceived control over work and perceived reward associated with work. CONCLUSIONS: Findings provide little support for a resource depletion model; however, the finding that control and reward both predicted fatigue is consistent with a motivational account of fatigue.

Tracking daily fatigue fluctuations in multiple sclerosis: ecological momentary assessment provides unique insights.

Studies investigating the prevalence, cause, and consequence of multiple sclerosis (MS) fatigue typically use single measures that implicitly assume symptom-stability over time, neglecting information about if, when, and why severity fluctuates. We aimed to examine the extent of moment-to-moment and day-to-day variability in fatigue in relapsing-remitting MS and healthy individuals, and identify daily life determinants of fluctuations. Over 4 weekdays, 76 participants (38 relapsing-remitting MS; 38 controls) recruited from multiple sites provided real-time self-reports six times daily (n = 1661 observations analyzed) measuring fatigue severity, stressors, mood, and physical exertion, and daily self-reports of sleep quality. Fatigue fluctuations were evident in both groups. Fatigue was highest in relapsing-remitting MS, typically peaking in late-afternoon. In controls, fatigue started lower and increased steadily until bedtime. Real-time stressors and negative mood were associated with increased fatigue, and positive mood with decreased fatigue in both groups. Increased fatigue was related to physical exertion in relapsing-remitting MS, and poorer sleep quality in controls. In relapsing-remitting MS, fatigue fluctuates substantially over time. Many daily life determinants of fluctuations are similar in relapsing-remitting MS and healthy individuals (stressors, mood) but physical exertion seems more relevant in relapsing-remitting MS and sleep quality most relevant in healthy individuals.

Pragmatic evaluation of methods for retrieving unpublished information on comparator interventions in a systematic review of smoking cessation trials.

OBJECTIVE: Reporting of the content and delivery characteristics of comparator interventions in published articles is often incomplete. This study examines the feasibility and validity of two methods for collecting additional information on comparator interventions from trial authors. METHODS & MEASURES: In a systematic review of smoking cessation trials (IC-Smoke), all trial authors were asked to send unpublished comparator intervention materials and complete a specially-developed comparator intervention checklist. All published and additionally obtained information from authors were coded for behaviour change techniques (BCTs) and other characteristics (type of comparator, provider, provider training, delivery mode and treatment duration). To assess representativeness, we assessed the amount of additional information obtained from trial authors compared with the amount that was published. We examined known-group and convergent validity of comparator intervention data when using only published or also unpublished information. RESULTS: Additional information were obtained from 91/136 (67%) of trial authors. Representativeness, known-group and convergent validity improved substantially based on the data collected by means of the comparator intervention checklist, but not by requesting authors to send any existing comparator materials. CONCLUSIONS: Requesting authors for unpublished comparator intervention data, using specially-developed checklists and unpublished materials, substantially improves the quality of data available for systematic reviews.

Clinical decisions and time since rest break: An analysis of decision fatigue in nurses.

OBJECTIVE: The present study investigates whether nurses working for a national medical telephone helpline show evidence of "decision fatigue," as measured by a shift from effortful to easier and more conservative decisions as the time since their last rest break increases. METHOD: In an observational, repeated-measures study, data from approximately 4,000 calls to 150 nurses working for the Scottish NHS 24 medical helpline (37% of the national workforce) were modeled to determine whether the likelihood of a nurse's decision to refer a patient to another health professional the same day (the clinically safest but most conservative and resource inefficient decision) varied according to the number of calls taken/time elapsed since a nurse's last rest break and/or since the start of shift. Analyses used mixed-effect logistic regression. RESULTS: For every consecutive call taken since last rest break, the odds of nurses making a conservative management decision (i.e., arranging for callers to see another health professional the same day) increased by 5.5% (p = .001, 95% confidence interval [CI: 2.2, 8.8]), an increase in odds of 20.5% per work hour (p < .001, 95% CI [9.1, 33.2]) or 49.0% (on average) from immediately after 1 break to immediately before the next. Decision-making was not significantly related to general or cumulative workload (calls or time elapsed since start of shift). CONCLUSIONS: Every consecutive decision that nurses make since their last break produces a predictable shift toward more conservative, and less resource-efficient, decisions. Theoretical models of cognitive fatigue can elucidate how and why this shift occurs, helping to identify potentially modifiable determinants of patient care. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Does real time variability in inhibitory control drive snacking behavior? An intensive longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVE: Laboratory eating studies and cross-sectional surveys indicate individuals with inefficient executive function (EF) consume more unhealthy snacks than others. However, the importance of EF in determining snacking behavior in the "real world" has not been established. Contemporary behavioral and self-control theories posit EF as a dynamic resource fluctuating over time. Consequently, a test of the relevance of EF to behavior within individuals is required. This study tested within- and between-person effects of real-time variability in objectively measured inhibitory control (a core facet of EF) on subsequent snacking behavior in daily life. METHOD: A community sample of 64 adults recorded snacking behavior and completed a short Go/No-Go test (assessing inhibitory control) hourly over 7 consecutive days, yielding a total well-powered sample of 6,284 data-points. Generalized linear mixed models using lagged effects examined within-person and between-person effects of inhibitory control efficiency on snacking behavior. RESULTS: When Go/No-Go test responses were 100 ms slower than the person-mean (indicating periods of poorer inhibitory control), snack consumption in the following hour was 25.67% higher, Exp (γ) = 1.26, p = .002, 95% confidence interval (CI) [1.06, 1.49]. Between-individuals, person-mean reaction time (RT) did not predict snack consumption, Exp (γ) = 1.02, p = .965, 95% CI [0.71, 1.46]. CONCLUSIONS: RT variability in inhibitory control efficiency is highly relevant to snacking behavior within individuals. Inhibitory control is an important driver of snacking in everyday life and an important target for interventions. (PsycINFO Database Record

Circadian cortisol and fatigue severity in relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis.

Cortisol is a key regulator of the immune system, energy metabolism, and stress, yet its relevance to fatigue experienced by people with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) remains uncertain. We examined cortisol secretory activity in RRMS and its association with fatigue severity between-individuals and within-individuals (day-to-day) using a case-control ecological momentary assessment design. While undergoing usual daily routines, 38 people with RRMS and 38 healthy control participants provided saliva samples at strategic time-points over 4 consecutive weekdays to measure the cortisol awakening response (CAR; 0, 30, and 45 min after awakening) and the diurnal cortisol slope (DCS; 6 quasi-random samples provided between 1000 h and 2000 h). Recalled fatigue was measured at baseline, and daily fatigue was measured as the mean average of momentary fatigue ratings provided alongside each DCS sample. Multilevel modeling found CAR output was greater in RRMS than controls, and recalled fatigue in RRMS was associated with both lower waking cortisol level and larger awakening response. Day-to-day, the CAR was not associated with same-day fatigue levels in RRMS. Cortisol appears to have a role in fatigue experienced in RRMS, but whether it is a causal factor remains unclear.

Unstimulated cortisol secretory activity in everyday life and its relationship with fatigue and chronic fatigue syndrome: a systematic review and subset meta-analysis.

The hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis is a psychoneuroendocrine regulator of the stress response and immune system, and dysfunctions have been associated with outcomes in several physical health conditions. Its end product, cortisol, is relevant to fatigue due to its role in energy metabolism. The systematic review examined the relationship between different markers of unstimulated salivary cortisol activity in everyday life in chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fatigue assessed in other clinical and general populations. Search terms for the review related to salivary cortisol assessments, everyday life contexts, and fatigue. All eligible studies (n=19) were reviewed narratively in terms of associations between fatigue and assessed cortisol markers, including the cortisol awakening response (CAR), circadian profile (CP) output, and diurnal cortisol slope (DCS). Subset meta-analyses were conducted of case-control CFS studies examining group differences in three cortisol outcomes: CAR output; CAR increase; and CP output. Meta-analyses revealed an attenuation of the CAR increase within CFS compared to controls (d=-.34) but no statistically significant differences between groups for other markers. In the narrative review, total cortisol output (CAR or CP) was rarely associated with fatigue in any population; CAR increase and DCS were most relevant. Outcomes reflecting within-day change in cortisol levels (CAR increase; DCS) may be the most relevant to fatigue experience, and future research in this area should report at least one such marker. Results should be considered with caution due to heterogeneity in one meta-analysis and the small number of studies.