AHRQ Patient Safety Network ► 'Sorry, I meant the patient's left side': impact of distraction on left-right discrimination.

AHRQ Patient Safety Network

Medical students were more likely to mix up a patient's left versus right side when subjected to cognitive distractions.Med Educ. 2015;49:427-435.

'Sorry, I meant the patient's left side': impact of distraction on left-right discrimination.

McKinley J, Dempster M, Gormley GJ. Med Educ. 2015;49:427-435.

Wrong-side procedures still occur at alarming rates, particularly outside of the operating room. This study exposed medical students to various types of distractions and measured their ability to distinguish a person's left from right side from different perspectives. Cognitive distractions had a bigger negative impact than ambient ward noise on the students' performance.

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