Is there a role for the use of aviation assessment instruments in surgical training preparation? A feasibility study.

Background: Selection for surgical residency programmes could potentially be improved through pretraining preparation, after assessment of surgical candidates' sensorimotor skills and personality traits. Existing aviation pilot selection instruments are available to test sensorimotor skills and personality traits. This study examined selected instruments to assess medical trainees' sensorimotor skills and personality traits.

Walk the talk: leaders' enacted priority of safety, incident reporting, and error management.

Purpose: The main goal of the current research was to investigate whether and how leaders in health care organizations can stimulate incident reporting and error management by "walking the safety talk" (enacted priority of safety).

Design/methodology/approach: Open interviews (N = 26) and a cross-sectional questionnaire (N = 183) were conducted at the Rotterdam Eye Hospital (REH) in The Netherlands.

Findings: As hypothesized, leaders' enacted priority of safety was positively related to incident reporting and error management, and the relation between leaders' enacted priority of safety and error management was mediated by incident reporting.

Safety by design: effects of operating room floor marking on the position of surgical devices to promote clean air flow compliance and minimise infection risks.

Objective: To evaluate the use of floor marking on the positioning of surgical devices within the clean air flow in an operating room (OR) to minimise infection risk. Laminar flow clean air systems are important in preventing infection in ORs but, for optimal results, surgical devices must be correctly positioned.

Methods: The authors evaluated floor marking in four ORs at an eye hospital using time series analysis.

Diffusing aviation innovations in a hospital in The Netherlands.

Background: Many authors have advocated the diffusion of innovations from other high-risk industries into health care to improve safety. The aviation industry is comparable to health care because of its similarities in (a) the use of technology, (b) the requirement of highly specialized professional teams, and (c) the existence of risk and uncertainties. For almost 20 years, The Rotterdam Eye Hospital (Rotterdam, the Netherlands) has been engaged in diffusing several innovations adapted from aviation.

Quality of care from the perspective of the cataract patient. QUOTE cataract questionnaire.

Purpose: To examine the potential of a questionnaire (QUOTE Cataract) to measure quality of care from the perspective of cataract patients in quality-assurance or improvement programs.

Setting: Department of Ophthalmology, University Hospital Maastricht, Maastricht, University Hospital Groningen, Groningen, and Rotterdam Eye Hospital, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.

Methods: Cataract patients (N = 540) who had cataract surgery 2 to 8 months previously rated 31 quality-of-care aspects in terms of importance (range 0, not important, to 10, extremely important) and performance (0 = yes, 1 = no).

Factors related to fear in patients undergoing cataract surgery: a qualitative study focusing on factors associated with fear and reassurance among patients who need to undergo cataract surgery.

The aim was to identify factors that are related to fear among patients who need to undergo cataract surgery. The data were collected by focus group interviews (n=27). The doctor-patient relationship, patient education, the wait, hospital organization, social support, sensations, previous experience, outcome of surgery, and coping strategies were identified as the main factors that contribute to feelings of fear related to cataract surgery.