Anaesthesia and intensive care
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This survey was designed to investigate levels of stress, anxiety and depression, and to identify factors exacerbating or relieving stress in anaesthesia trainees within the Australian and New Zealand College of Anaesthetists training scheme. In addition, the survey investigated levels of personal healthcare, some working conditions, and reports of bullying and reported discrimination along with stigmatisation of mental health issues in this cohort. Psychological distress was assessed using the Kessler psychological distress scale (K10). ⋯ Forty-two percent reported that they would avoid seeking help for anxiety or depression and 50% reported that they thought revealing mental health problems would jeopardise their careers. The results of this survey demonstrate a high incidence of psychological distress, and high levels of bullying and discrimination, as well as stigmatisation of mental ill health among respondents. Appropriate education, a review of assessment tools, effective management of bullying and discrimination, a review of working conditions, and destigmatisation of mental illness appear to be indicated.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2021
A cross-sectional overview of the second 4000 incidents reported to webAIRS, a de-identified web-based anaesthesia incident reporting system in Australia and New Zealand.
This cross-sectional overview of the second 4000 incidents reported to webAIRS has findings that are very similar to the previous overview of the first 4000 incidents. The distribution of patient age, body mass index and American Society of Anesthesiologists physical status was similar, as was anaesthetist gender, grade, location and time of day of incidents. About 35% of incidents occurred during non-elective procedures (vs. 33% in the first 4000 incidents). ⋯ It is not clear whether these differences represent trends or random observations. About 48% of incidents were considered preventable by the reporters (vs. 52% in the first 4000). These findings support continued emphasis on human and system factors to promote and improve patient safety in anaesthesia care.
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Anaesth Intensive Care · Nov 2021
National quality improvement indicators project: an initial descriptive study.
Anaesthesia Quality Improvement New Zealand developed a set of five quality improvement indicators pertaining to postoperative nausea and vomiting, pain, respiratory distress, hypothermia and a prolonged post-anaesthesia care unit stay. This study sought to assess the proportion of eligible institutions that were able to measure and provide data on these indicators, produce an initial national estimate of these, and a measure of variability in the quality improvement indicators across hospitals in New Zealand. ⋯ The majority of eligible institutions were able to measure and provide data on the quality improvement indicators. There was a low rate of respiratory distress with low variability. A large amount of variability was observed in the other indicators. Future studies are needed to explore the nature of this variability.