workforce
Gorillas in the midst, missed
You may have seen the popular YouTube video that challenges viewers to count the number of times a group of people pass some basketballs amongst themselves as they move about a small room.
It’ s a seemingly simple enough task. However, the punchline to the exercise( spoiler alert) is that whether or not you count the passes accurately, there’ s probably a better than 50 per cent chance that you won’ t have noticed the person in the gorilla suit who wanders into the frame, lingers briefly amidst the group, beats on their chest for the camera and then departs the scene. The idea is that many viewers are so
The phenomenon of inattentional blindness helps explain how healthcare workers can overlook what appears to be obvious, sometimes with disastrous results.
Megan-Jane Johnstone interviewed by Dallas Bastian
focused on counting the passes that they do not register the gorilla in the room.
This phenomenon is known as selective attention or inattentional blindness. It has been labelled so by US academics Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. Researchers now believe it may be the root cause of some failures to recognise and act upon signs of clinical deterioration.
The idea was put forward in a recently published paper by Deakin University researcher professor Megan-Jane Johnstone and PhD researcher Angela Jones.
Their paper,“ Inattentional blindness and failures to rescue the deteriorating patient in critical care, emergency and perioperative settings: four case scenarios”, published in the journal Australian Critical
Care, defines inattentional blindness as the failure to see things that are in plain sight because they are unexpected.
“ Failure to identify and respond to clinical deterioration is an important measure of patient safety, hospital performance and quality of care,” the paper states.“ Although studies have identified the role of patient, system and human factors in [ failures to rescue ], the role of inattentional blindness as a possible contributing factor has been overlooked.”
The research aims to explore the nature and possible patient safety implications of inattentional blindness across three nursing contexts.
Jones conducted in-depth interviews with critical care, emergency and perioperative nurses. The team then considered four case scenarios and found they raise the possibility that inattentional blindness is a salient but overlooked human factor in failures to rescue across the critical care spectrum.
Aged Care Insite sits down with Johnstone, who is chair in nursing at Deakin’ s School of Nursing and Midwifery, to discuss the ways inattentional blindness may affect patient care and the factors that contribute to its prevalence.
ACI: Your paper focused on inattentional blindness. What does that term describe and in what ways might it affect patient safety and outcomes? MJJ: Basically, inattentional blindness encapsulates people failing to see things that are in plain sight. There’ s a famous YouTube video called“ The Invisible Gorilla” [ that was put together by Simons and Chabris ] that illustrates this phenomena well. Its potential impact on patient safety is that practitioners are so engaged in what they’ re doing, there is a risk that they won’ t see the bigger picture, and that is an example of inattentional blindness. They’ re blind to the bigger picture if you like.
Where did the idea for this study come from? Like many things in research, by chance. I was on my way to a conference and was strolling by the airport bookshop, and they had just released a book called The Invisible Gorilla by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. As I started to read it, I just had a lightbulb moment and thought that this phenomena of not seeing things in plain sight seemed to offer a frame through which
32 agedcareinsite. com. au