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“Don’t Yell at Me!” Disruptive Behavior in the OR

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Principles of Perioperative Safety and Efficiency

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Abstract

Disruptive behavior in the operating room can manifest in many forms, from overt verbal abuse to passive-aggressive avoidance behaviors. Disruptive behavior can be caused by team and institutional culture, technical and situational factors, distractions, poor communication, and surgeon personality. As leaders of the operating team, it is essential that surgeons do not contribute to disruptive behavior, either in individual conduct or in perpetuation of a complicit culture. Moreover, as a leader, a surgeon should be setting the tone and leading by example, as well as demanding professional behavior from the entire team. Disruptive behavior in the operating room ultimately leads to decreased individual and team performance, increased stress, increased employee attrition, decreased learning, increased communication errors and litigation, and poor patient outcomes. Understanding how to recognize, address, manage, and prevent disruptive behavior in the operating room is of utter importance, given that disruptive behavior has negative effects on the surgeon, surgical teams, learners, and—most importantly—patients and perioperative safety. In this chapter, the effects of disruptive behavior in the operating room on perioperative safety will be discussed, as well as individual-, team-, and systems-level solutions.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Surgery, University of Colorado–Denver, Aurora, CO, USA

    Julia R. Coleman

  2. University of Colorado Department of Surgery, Aurora, CO, USA

    Richard Schulick

  3. University of Colorado Cancer Center, Aurora, CO, USA

    Richard Schulick

  4. University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus, Aurora, CO, USA

    Richard Schulick

Authors
  1. Julia R. Coleman
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  2. Richard Schulick
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Julia R. Coleman .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Surgery, American University of Beirut Medical Center, Beirut, Lebanon

    Jamal J Hoballah

  2. Surgery, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, MA, USA

    Haytham MA Kaafarani

  3. Transplantation Surgery, Aristotle University School of Medicine, Thessaloniki, Greece

    Georgios Tsoulfas

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Coleman, J.R., Schulick, R. (2024). “Don’t Yell at Me!” Disruptive Behavior in the OR. In: Hoballah, J.J., Kaafarani, H.M., Tsoulfas, G. (eds) Principles of Perioperative Safety and Efficiency. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41089-5_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41089-5_19

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

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  • Online ISBN: 978-3-031-41089-5

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