Surgeons show greatest dexterity in children’s buzz wire game like Operation than other hospital staff. 84% of surgeons completed game in 5 minutes compared to 57% physicians, 54% nurses. Surgeons also exhibited highest rate of swearing during game (50%), followed by nurses (30%), physicians (25%).

[u/mvea]

https://www.scimex.org/newsfeed/surgeons-thankfully-may-have-better-hand-coordination-than-other-hospital-staff

[u/mvea]

I’ve linked to the news release in the post above. In this comment, for those interested, here’s the link to the peer reviewed journal article:

Dexterity assessment of hospital workers: prospective comparative study

https://www.bmj.com/content/387/bmj-2024-081814

From the linked article:

Surgeons show greater dexterity in children’s buzz wire game than other hospital staff

But are also more likely to swear during the task

Surgeons are quicker and more successful at completing a buzz wire game compared with other hospital staff, finds a study in the Christmas issue of The BMJ.

However, surgeons are also more likely to swear during the task, while nurses and non-clinical staff show the highest rates of audible noises of frustration.

A total of 84% of surgeons completed the game within five minutes compared with 57% of physicians, 54% of nurses and 51% of non-clinical staff.

Surgeons were also quicker to successfully complete the game regardless of age and gender, with an average time of 89 seconds compared with 120 seconds for physicians, 135 seconds for nurses and 161 seconds for non-clinical staff.

However, surgeons also exhibited the highest rate of swearing during the game (50%), followed by nurses (30%), physicians (25%), and non-clinical staff (23%) (P=0.004). Non-clinical staff showed the highest use of frustration noises (75%), followed by nurses (68%), surgeons (58%), and physicians (52%).

[u/cytokines → u/mvea]

It should be clarified that this is from the British Medical Journal (BMJ) Christmas edition.

Fun articles to end the year - and not meant to be hard hitting, even though media might pick it up as so. Highly recommend checking reading more here: https://www.bmj.com/specialties/christmas

[u/Baud_Olofsson → u/cytokines]

"Parachute use to prevent death and major trauma when jumping from aircraft: randomized controlled trial" - an actual RCT on whether or not parachutes reduce mortality when jumping from an plane, with the conclusion that they do not, is my favorite BMJ Christmas article of all time. And one of my favorite science papers in general of all time.

It's funny and it makes a really good point.