Concepts and measurement techniques from human factors research were used to develop two measures of the mental workload experienced by physicians in clinic settings. The instruments had good reliability (Cronbach's alpha) and physician mental workload was correlated with hypothesized work demands and performance measures. These initial results support the feasibility of measuring physician mental workload in typical patient care encounters.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
AlexanderD.MonkJ.S.JonasA.P. (1985). Occupational stress, personal strain, and coping among residents and faculty members. Journal of Medical Education, 60, 830–839.
2.
BertramD.A. (1988). Characteristics of shifts and second-year resident performance in an emergency department. New York State Journal of Medicine, 88, 10–14.
3.
HartS.G.StavelandL.E. (1988). Development of NASA-TLX (Task Load Index): Results of empirical and theoretical research. In HancockP.A.MeshkatiN. (Eds.), Human Mental Workload (pp.139–183). Amsterdam: North-Holland, Elsevier Science Publishers.
4.
HulkaB.S.KupperL.L.CasselJ.C.BabineauR.A. (1975). Practice characteristics and quality of primary medical care: The doctor-patient relationship. Medical Care, 13, 808–820.
5.
HulkaB.S.RommF.J.ParkersonG.R.Jr.RussellI.T.ClappN.E.JohnsonF.S. (1979). Peer review in ambulatory care: Use of explicit criteria and implicit judgment. Medical Care, 17 (suppl), 1–73.
6.
MawardiB.H. (1979). Satisfactions, dissatisfactions, and causes of stress in medical practice. Journal of the American Medical Association, 241, 1483–1486.
7.
ReidG.B.NygrenT.E. (1988). The Subjective Workload Assessement Technique: A scaling procedure for measuring mental workload. In HancockP.A.MeshkatiN. (Eds.), Human Mental Workload (pp.185–218). Amsterdam: North-Holland, Elsevier Science Publishers.
8.
Residents Services Committee, Association of Program Directors in Internal Medicine (1988). Stress and impairment during residency training: Strategies for reduction, identification, and management. Annals of Internal Medicine, 109, 154–161.
9.
WilkinsonR.T.TylerP.D.VareyC.A. (1975). Duty hours of young hospital doctors: Effects on the quality of work. Journal of Occupational Psychology, 48, 219–229.
