The Effect of Surgeon Workload on Intraoperative Communication Qualities: An Observational Study Using Physiologically Assessed Workload During Cardiac Surgery

Intraoperative communication qualities varied across workload levels, with less directed and less substantive communication exchanges from the surgeon during high workload. Other team members appeared to adapt their communication behaviours accordingly, which contribute to the resilience in OR teams during high stress situations. These results highlight the importance of online measurements of workload for the assessment and training non-technical skills in the OR.