Measuring Mental Workload in a Hospital Unit Using EEG - A Pilot Study

摘要

Workload in a hospital environment can be a combination of physical and mental effort. Various objective and subjective measures have been used to determine the influence of workload on physiological responses of humans. These measures have been used to determine both physical and mental loading on humans. Studies providing literature and guidelines for physical workload are available but comparatively limited studies have been undertaken to determine mental workload, especially for the entire shift duration. While indirect measures for mental loading such as heart rate, blood pressure, and blood flow have been used, direct measures such as Electroencephalogram (EEG) has been not used or been underutilized in healthcare studies. Hence, a study was conducted to determine the viability of continuous monitoring of brain activity for mental workload experienced by nurses in a hospital unit. Five female registered nurses assigned to the day shift at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit from a local Michigan hospital were instrumented with a portable recording system to record EEG over the 12-hour shift. Five band powers (delta, theta, alpha, beta and gamma) for each hemisphere were computed. Results indicate increased delta band power for both hemispheres, which can be associated with increased mental loading. Based on the preliminary results, it could be suggested that EEG technique may be sensitive to measure mental demands imposed on nurses while performing their daily routine activities in a hospital unit.