The Effects of Physicians` Work Overload on TOVA and Physiological Measures of Sustained Attention

Extended shift-duration and physician`s work-load schedules are assumed to alter attention functioning and cognitive performance, leading to preventable medical errors. In the current study we sampled 52.4% of total hospital physicians on call and evaluated the effects of 24 hours extended shift duration through four quantitative measures, as follows: Test of Variable Attention (TOVA), Auditory Sustained Attention Test (ASAT) and level of arousal (response to acoustic startle stimuli). Compared to baseline, we found that 24 hours shift increased omission and commission errors, reaction time and the variability of response time in the TOVA, as well as decreased the inhibitory ability as measured by the ASAT. The startle responses recorded post 24 hours shift decreased across all departments. Differences in performance on the TOVA compared to the ASAT as well as baseline differences are discussed. We conclude that the traditional medical working schedule of physicians should be reconsidered and new schedules with improved regulatory practices implementation are required in order to prevent physician`s cognitive failures and reduce potential medical errors in the future.