Negative Emotional Experiences Impact Clinical Decision-Making, Patient Safety in Emergency Departments

Two AHRQ-funded studies on emergency department (ED) healthcare providers found that emotional experiences, especially negative ones, can impact patient safety and clinical decision-making. In one study, researchers conducted 86 interviews with ED physicians and nurses who said they responded emotionally to patient, hospital and system-level factors. Some of those clinicians reported trying to limit face-to-face encounters with patients who aroused negative emotions, including bypassing recommended tests in favor of less relevant tests that would quicken patient discharge. In a related study, researchers asked an additional 94 ED providers to write about negative and positive patient encounters, as well as encounters with mental health patients. Providers again reported lower engagement and increased patient safety risks from negative emotional encounters and those with mental health patients. Researchers called for additional studies into the impacts of emotions on patient safety as well as implementation of emotional intelligence training and education for providers. Abstracts of the studies, published in The British Medical Journal: Quality & Safety, can be accessed here and here.