Consent script
You are invited to participate in a research study examining your exposure and responses to disruptive behavior in the operating room. We define disruptive intraoperative behaviors as those that undermine a reasonable person’s standard of respectful behavior. These behaviors range from mild incivility to egregious abuse. They are critical to study, since they can undermine the wellbeing of clinicians, the functioning of institutions, and the safety of patients. The way people respond to these behaviors is also critical since responses can ameliorate or exacerbate the negative effects of disruptive behavior.
This survey is being conducted by the Intraoperative Behaviors Research Group consisting of researchers from the University of the Fraser Valley (UFV), the University of Michigan, and several health regions across North America. It has been approved by the UFV research ethics board. This group previously conducted the largest survey study on the topic (involving ~7500 clinician responses across 7 countries), which resulted in many original peer-reviewed articles and several invited reviews.
Your participation in this research study is completely voluntary. The procedure involves completing a questionnaire assessing exposure and responses to disruptive intraoperative behavior. It will take approximately 15 minutes to complete. Upon participating, you may withdraw at any time by not completing the remainder of the survey. Your responses will be anonymous, and we will not link them to any directly identifying information such as your name, email address or IP address (if completing this questionnaire online). Efforts to safeguard your confidentiality are in place. All data will be stored in a password-protected, electronic format. The data from this study will be discussed and presented in composite form in any resulting presentations or publications. Data access will be limited to the main study investigators and the UFV research ethics board. However, absolute confidentiality cannot be guaranteed. To help safeguard your confidentiality, please do not write your name or identifying information on this survey or in any textboxes.
The risks of participating are minimal, but some questions may prompt you to recall uncomfortable or distressing experiences. If you are experiencing distress due to exposure to disruptive behavior, we encourage you to consult the mental resources appended to this consent script (based on your geographical location). There may be no direct benefit to you for participating in this study. However, the information you provide will be useful in identifying institutional factors that affect exposure and responses to disruptive intraoperative behaviors.
Once you have completed the survey, you will have the option of entering yourself into a draw for a MacBook Air (pending correctly answering a skill-testing question). The value of the MacBook air is approximately $1300 CAD. The odds of winning will depend on the number of participants who chose to take part in the draw, but we conservatively estimate that the odds will be 1/1000 (min ~465 participants, but given the number of associations being contacted, a target sample of 1000 is our target). This requires disclosing some personal contact information. However, the responses you give to that ballot are not connected to your answers to the main survey. The probability of winning depends on the final number of total respondents. Note: please do not complete this survey more than once, as individuals with duplicate entries will be precluded from the draw. By completing this survey, you agree to participate. Thank you for your time and effort!