Understanding the impact of stress on safety behaviours in healthcare: a simulation study

Doctors frequently experience high levels of stress in their working lives which can impact adversely on health and cause reduced efficiency of thought processes – posing additional risks to patient safety. This project aims to further understanding around the precise conditions that are most stress inducing in acute care scenarios and to explore the relationship between stress and performance of tasks which are relevant to patient safety. Simulation methods are opening up opportunities to study stress and its effects in real time and, as such, we will study these factors using a simulated scenario devised for second year medical students.