Cognitive bias during clinical decision-making and its influence on patient outcomes in the emergency department: A scoping review.

BACKGROUND

An integral part of clinical practice is decision-making. Yet there is widespread acceptance that there is evidence of cognitive bias within clinical practice among nurses and physicians. However, how cognitive bias among emergency nurses and physicians' decision-making influences patient outcomes remains unclear.

AIM

The aim of this review was to systematically synthesise research exploring the emergency nurses' and physicians' cognitive bias in decision-making and its influence on patient outcomes.

METHODS

This scoping review was guided by the PRISMA Extension for Scoping Reviews. The databases searched included CINAHL, MEDLINE, Web of Science and PubMed. No date limits were applied. The Patterns, Advances, Gaps, Evidence for practice and Research recommendation (PAGER) framework was used to guide the discussion.

RESULTS

The review included 18 articles, consisting of 10 primary studies (nine quantitative and one qualitative) and eight literature reviews. Of the 18 articles, nine investigated physicians, five articles examined nurses, and four both physicians and nurses with sample sizes ranging from 13 to 3547. Six primary studies were cross-sectional and five used hypothetical scenarios, and one real-world assessment. Three were experimental studies. Twenty-nine cognitive biases were identified with Implicit bias (n = 12) most frequently explored, followed by outcome bias (n = 4). Results were inconclusive regarding the influence of biases on treatment decisions and patient outcomes. Four key themes were identified; (i) cognitive biases among emergency clinicians; (ii) measurement of cognitive bias; (iii) influence of cognitive bias on clinical decision-making; and (iv) association between emergency clinicians' cognitive bias and patient outcomes.

CONCLUSIONS

This review identified that cognitive biases were present among emergency nurses and physicians during clinical decision-making, but it remains unclear how cognitive bias influences patient outcomes. Further research examining emergency clinicians' cognitive bias is required.

RELEVANCE TO CLINICAL PRACTICE

Awareness of emergency clinicians' own cognitive biases may result to the provision of equity in care.

NO PATIENT OR PUBLIC CONTRIBUTION IN THIS REVIEW

We intend to disseminate the results through publication in a peer-reviewed journals and conference presentations.