Cognitive Load in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine: Tsunamis and a Thousand Cuts

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IMPORTANCE: Excessive cognitive load impairs task performance and contributes to burnout, but studies of cognitive load in pediatric critical care medicine (PCCM) settings are limited. OBJECTIVES: To better understand cognitive load in an academic PCCM setting and how cognitive load differs based on experience, role, task type, and task frequency. DESIGN, SETTINGS, AND PARTICIPANTS: Prospective two-part survey at a quaternary children's hospital PCCM department. Part 1 (February to March 2022) assessed routine role-specific tasks; part 2 (June to August 2022) evaluated acute resuscitation. Participants were registered nurses (RNs), respiratory therapists (RTs), and physicians + advanced practice providers (APPs). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: Raw cognitive load (1-9 Paas scale), net cognitive load (Paas × task frequency), and NASA-Task Load Index (NASA-TLX) subdomain scores (0-100) for acute resuscitation. Role was the primary exposure; between-group differences were analyzed using analysis of variance with pairwise comparisons. RESULTS: There were 109-part 1 and 79-part 2 survey respondents. Across all tasks, mean raw Paas scores were highest for physicians + APPs (5.2 ± 1.1), followed by RNs (4.8 ± 1.0) and RTs (4.0 ± 1.4; p = 0.004). In the three highest-load shared tasks-acute resuscitation, rescuing a decompensating patient, and managing advanced life-support devices-RNs reported significantly higher raw load than physicians + APPs and RTs. For bedside patient assessment, RNs had higher net cognitive load (25.0 ± 8.7) than physicians + APPs (20.3 ± 7.0; p = 0.01) and RTs (18.9 ± 8.9; p = 0.01). Nursing experience correlated with overall net cognitive load (r = 0.30; p = 0.02). During resuscitation, RNs reported higher NASA-TLX scores than other providers in all but two subdomains. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Cognitive load in PCCM varies significantly by role and task type. Nurses experience high raw cognitive load from critical events and net cognitive load from bedside patient assessment, suggesting opportunities for role-specific workflow redesign and cognitive load reduction strategies to benefit staff and patients.

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