Just reading a post on new doctors causing harm because of nerves etc, made me think about the comparison between doctors that have been in the job a long time and new doctors, and their potential to cause harm.
A new doctor will be nervous and will be trying to impress, but don't forget there will be an older doctor there saying," Now just cut along the dotted line", which should reduce the nerves somewhat. The 6% of death increase on the first day new doctors worked, would compare favourably or unfavourably, with older doctors that cause death because of bacterial spread, brought about by their lack of sanitation, not washing hands. How can you measure this one?
New Scientist was very critical of doctors bad habits in this regard, and I'll bet you, the new doctors performed a lot better in this area of health. New brooms always sweep cleaner for awhile, usually until they think the right impression has been created. How cynical of me, I am talking like a boss again.
New Scientist
'Superspreading' doctors cause most infections
* 28 October 2009
* Magazine issue 2731.
SWINE flu and hospital superbugs may have a common weapon: the dirty hands of doctors and nurses that act as germ "superspreaders".
Didier Guillemot of the Pasteur Institute in Paris, France, and colleagues created a mathematical model of a hypothetical intensive care unit (ICU) with a staff of 22.
They found that staff who saw all patients briefly were better at spreading germs than those who tended a few patients very closely. If just one of the former always failed to wash their hands, it caused more infections than if the entire staff forgot one-quarter of the time (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0900974106).
Hospitals use the consumption of hand-hygiene products to monitor hand-washing, says team member Laura Temime of the National Conservatory of Arts and Trades in Paris. "Our study suggests individual surveillance of hand hygiene would be better."
If the flu pandemic overwhelms ICUs, staff will tend more patients, creating more superspreaders.
Cheers
