Dexterity assessment of hospital workers: prospective comparative study

[Animats]

There's a standard test for this: The O'Connor Tweezer Dexterity Test.[1] There's a board with small holes, a supply of metal pins, and a tweezer for putting pins in the holes. It's overpriced, because it's "medical".

Some electronics assembly plants use such a test to screen new hires.

Tweezer dexterity improves with practice. Hands are more precise than vision. Looking through a microscope, you can position something within a thousandth of an inch with tweezers. This is familiar to anyone who's placed surface mount parts on a board by hand.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/s?k=tweezer+dexterity+test

[pugworthy]

The toy used in the study is a lot cheaper - about $15. See https://www.johnlewis.com/john-lewis-buzzwire-game/p4349607

I was really expecting to see it was the classic “Operation“ game when I first saw mention in the paper.

[wslh]

The study appears to omit handedness as a potential factor influencing performance.

[chaos_emergent]

Why is it relevant to include that factor

[qrybam]

Gut reaction to the results: swearing because you feel you should have got it, and frustration because you feel it's too hard.

[magic_smoke_ee]

I still think surgeons should offer shaves.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barber_surgeon

[woliveirajr]

> Implementation of a surgical swear jar initiative

Yes, the main goal of a surgical site is to avoid swearing

> our findings are not applicable to children younger than 4 years for whom the buzz wire game’s small parts may represent a choking hazard, although these individuals are unlikely to be currently employed in secondary care.

Now, that's a point. I'd avoid a 0-3 toddler if i could choose so before some surgery.

[SiempreViernes]

This is an example of a sentence where truncation significantly changes the meaning. It reads in full

> Implementation of a surgical swear jar initiative should be considered for future fundraising events.

from which it is clear that suppression of swearing by the surgeons is very much not the intended goal.

[munch117]

It would seem that swearing is correlated with higher skill. It may be premature to suggest that we should encourage increased swearing - correlation is not causation - but it seems the logical avenue to pursue. Further research is needed.