The impact of rudeness on medical team performance: A randomized trial (2015)

Summary

The aim of this study in the journal Pediatrics was to explore the impact of rudeness on the performance of medical teams. Twenty-four NICU teams participated in a training simulation involving a preterm infant whose condition acutely deteriorated due to necrotizing enterocolitis. Participants were informed that a foreign expert on team reflexivity in medicine would observe them. Teams were randomly assigned to either exposure to rudeness (in which the expert’s comments included mildly rude statements completely unrelated to the teams’ performance) or control (neutral comments). The videotaped simulation sessions were evaluated by three independent judges (blinded to team exposure) who used structured questionnaires to assess team performance, information-sharing and help-seeking.

The authors concluded that rudeness had adverse consequences on the diagnostic and procedural performance of NICU team members. Information-sharing mediated the adverse effect of rudeness on diagnostic performance, and help-seeking mediated the effect of rudeness on procedural performance.