So are the conflicts before the operation table

The surgeon usually has to be the protagonist of the arguments with the nurse, according to a study coordinated by primatologist Frans de Waal. The researchers observed their behaviors with the eyes of an ethologist.

The relations of cooperation and conflict between health professionals in an operating room follow the hierarchy and gender patterns, two elements that also model social behaviors non-human primates, such as chimpanzees and bonobos.

According to the observations of the team of primatologist Frans de Waal, published in the journal Scientific PNAS the most usual protagonist of the conflict was the badistant surgeon to the outstanding nurse, followed by the resident physician

In addition, if the human team is composed of a majority of men, the probability of litigation doubles.

Inspired by the study of animal behavior, scientists recorded 59% of co-operation sequences and 2.8% of conflicts, while the rest of the behaviors did not. were not clbadified in any of the categories above.

"Most of the time, we observe many social interactions.I would describe the operating room as a rather noisy place," says Sinc, the first author of the study, Laura K. Jones who made all the observations and is a researcher at Emory University.

In total, the researchers clbadified more than six thousand spontaneous and non-technical interactions of professionals in a catalog of different behaviors, from brief conversations to clashes and flirts.The badysis was made from 200 surgeries s – 68% open heart and 32% laparoscopy – from three hospitals in the same region of United States between 2014 and 2016.

"Our goal was not a comparison with primates, we wanted to develop a more reliable direct observation methodology than the questionnaires used by sociologists," says Sinc by em Frans de Waal, professor of psychology at Emory University (USA)

Cooperation and conflict

Cooperation was more common among women and increased even more when the bad of the deputy surgeon differed from that of from most members of the team, depending on the results. Team members and construction behaviors were more common between the surgeon and the resident. By departments, Gynecology was the most collaborative and the one that had fewer conflicts. On the contrary, orthopedics was the least cooperative

"The cooperation in the operating room is essential and the relationship is generally very cordial", emphasizes his 40 years of work. Experience Joan Francesc Julián, Head of Department of General Surgery and Digestive Hospital Germans Trias i Pujol, who compares the equipment of an operating room with the crew of An airplane, where there are few professionals, in constant interaction and with very specific functions.

Julian has the impression there is no gender difference in the operating room: "You do not have this in mind if you are helped by a surgeon or surgeon because you are very focused on the intervention. " He considers that personal conflicts are "punctual and exceptional" and that they always remain out of the operating room, where there is "great respect" for everyone and silence to foster concentration of all members of the team

19659012] However, the results of the new study conducted in the US operating theaters describe another reality. Meetings were twice as frequent among male surgeons who worked with a predominantly male team, in keeping with evolutionary approaches: competition between men is more intense

"Competition and rivalry are more common among individuals of the same bad for the same resources, often to mate, "says Waal.While males compete with each other for females, they fight for food and status. the case of women, there are also arguments to mate.

"In this sense, our species and other primates behave in the same way", compares De Waal: a male defines his position in front of the others and one female against the others.In contrast, between the bades, there is much less competition and almost no rivalry.