Health habits of medical students during operating room rotations

Abstract

METHODSWe selected several lifestyle factors to study, which included exercise, sleep, diet, caffeine consumption, and alcohol consumption. These factors were chosen because public health organizations identify them as risk factors for the most common chronic diseases (i.e., cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and chronic respiratory diseases) [16]. Evidence that each lifestyle factor was being optimized for health was indicated through compliance with a guideline for healthy living related to this factor. Sources for these guidelines came from a number of respected health organizations. The organizations and their associated guidelines are listed in Table 1.This was a substudy of a larger study examining disruptive behavior in the perioperative setting. The survey received ABSTRACT Purpose: Healthy lifestyle habits have been linked with enhanced learning during medical school, motivating some schools to institute healthy self-care programs for students. This study examined the health habits of medical students in the USA and Canada during operating room rotations and compared the results with recommended health guidelines. Methods: The authors created a survey examining markers of a healthy lifestyle. The questions were derived from scientific guidelines and pertained to getting adequate amounts of exercise and sleep, and abstaining from excessive consumption of junk food, caffeine, and alcohol. Several sociodemographic predictors of compliance with health habits were examined using logistic regression. Results: A total of 543 students completed the survey. The proportions of students meeting recommended health guidelines for each health habit were as follows: Alcohol (79.2%), caffeine (51.3%), food (47.6%), sleep (38.2%), and exercise (18.6%). The proportion of students meeting all health guidelines concurrently was 4.1% and the proportion meeting none was 4.8%. Men had a lower risk of not meeting the majority of the health guidelines (odds ratio [OR] = 0.66, P = 0.018) and older students (OR = 2.17, P = 0.012) were at a higher risk. Conclusions: The vast majority of the medical students surveyed were not in compliance with healthy lifestyle guidelines during operating room rotations. This research supports the need for healthy self-care programs for medical students and specifically draws attention to the importance of physical activity.

Incivility in the Health Care Environment: Special Focus on the Operating Room

“…Fifty-six percent ( n = 22) have dreaded going to work due to uncivil behavior in the operating room. Similar to the findings of Hamlin et al (2016), Garth et al (2019) found that uncivil behaviors were reported most commonly as being committed by operating room physicians and nurse colleagues. The most common reported uncivil behavior by fellow operating room nurses was gossiping about other nurses, with 83.79% ( n = 31).…”

“…It was concluded that the low-ubiquity results reveal that only a small number of operating room professionals engage in the perpetration of negative behaviors. Although surgeons were viewed to be the most persistent perpetrators, involvement from members of all professions strongly suggests that generalized “prophylactic interventions” may be useful in the reduction of the frequency of these negative behaviors (Hamlin et al, 2016). These findings are similar to those of Katz et al (2019) in that assertiveness training and/or civility training is needed in order to defend against uncivil behavior in the operating room.…”

“…They concluded that the work environment had a clinically meaningful association with incivility. The studies were conclusive in that interdisciplinary health care providers working in acute care areas, such as intensive care, emergency departments, or operating rooms, have been linked to nurse burnout, higher turnover intentions and absenteeism, emotional and physical duress, undermining teamwork, negative impact on performance, threatened work productivity, and a disruptive teaching–learning environment (Evans, 2017; Garth et al, 2019; Hamlin et al, 2016; Katz et al, 2019; Layne et al, 2019; Smith et al, 2018).…”

“…Negative behaviors, such as bullying and incivility, are often overlooked and deemed part of the operating room culture. Hamlin et al (2016) sought to determine which professions are responsible for inflicting negative behaviors, including incivility, and to determine the ubiquity of the culprit within each profession. A total of 6,142 operating room professionals, including surgeons, anesthesiologists, nurses, and auxiliary staff (surgical technicians and students), completed a validated survey in which the professions responsible for perpetrating negative behaviors were determined by comparing perpetration frequencies using Friedman's test and post hoc two-sample Wilcoxon tests with Bonferroni correct.…”

“…In several studies, the authors relied on participants' memories or perceptions to accurately report their experiences (Evans, 2017; Hamblin et al, 2015; Hamlin et al, 2016; Layne et al, 2019; Smith et al, 2018). The findings of Katz et al (2019) were limited because the interactions that occurred between staff transpired in a simulated environment, which can never be exactly replicated in a real-life scenario.…”