Surgeons Best at Dexterity Game, but They Swear More

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Swearing may be a coping mechanism for high-pressure situations

by
Kristina Fiore, Director of Enterprise & Investigative Reporting, MedPage Today
December 18, 2024

Surgeons beat out other hospital staff when it came to a “buzz wire” dexterity game, but they also were more likely to swear while playing, researchers found.

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A far larger proportion of surgeons completed the game within 5 minutes (84%) compared with physicians (57%), nurses (54%), and non-clinical staff (51%; P<0.001), according to Michael Drozd, MBChB, PhD, of the University of Leeds in England, and colleagues.

Yet they also had the highest rate of swearing (50%), followed by nurses (30%), physicians (25%), and non-clinical staff (23%; P=0.004), the researchers reported in the Christmas edition of The BMJ.

“Everyone knows surgeons brag about having steady hands, so we decided to put this to the test,” Drozd told MedPage Today in an email. “The buzz wire game gave us an objective measure whilst being fun.”

“We expected surgeons to show good dexterity given their role, but we were surprised by just how much better they were at the game,” he added, noting the primary outcome showed “a much bigger difference than we anticipated.”

They also noted that previous research “has suggested that surgeons’ propensity for swearing might be a coping mechanism for high-pressure situations to help them maintain skill despite stress.”

The literature has been mixed as to whether surgeons have better dexterity than their medical colleagues and other hospital staff, Drozd and colleagues wrote. To get closer to an answer, Drozd and colleagues tested 254 staff at one U.K. National Health Service (NHS) trust — 60 physicians, 64 surgeons, 69 nurses, and 61 non-clinical staff — during 3 weeks in 2024.

They had them play a buzz wire game, which consisted of a twisted metal wire path fixed on a non-conductive base. Participants had to guide a wand with a metal loop from one end of the path to the other without touching the wire. If the loop touched the wire, a buzzer sounded and the participant had to start over again.

They found that surgeons were quicker to successfully complete the game, at an average of 89 seconds, compared with 120 seconds for physicians, 135 seconds for nurses, and 161 seconds for non-clinical staff.

While surgeons had the highest rate of swearing, non-clinical staff made the most noises of frustration (75%), followed by nurses (68%), surgeons (58%), and physicians (52%), the researchers found.

“The buzz wire game might be a reasonable tool for assessing manual dexterity because the tool evaluates fine motor skills, hand and eye coordination, steadiness, handling stress, and provides objective data within an inexpensive and simple solution,” the researchers wrote. “Although not formally validated as a measure of manual dexterity, previous studies have found the buzz wire game performs comparably to other validated tools of dexterity.”

Drozd and colleagues concluded that the findings “provide surgeons at Leeds Teaching Hospitals with boasting rights regarding their dexterity skills, in both the operating theater and the coffee room.”

It’s not clear why surgeons have better dexterity, they noted, but it could be either a training effect, or innate ability, they wrote.

The findings also suggest that surgical swear jars could be considered for future fundraising events, and they may help with “reducing swearing and optimizing composure during challenging tasks.”

When asked how surgeons at this NHS trust have taken the swear jar suggestion, Drozd said they’ve “taken it in good humor — though I suspect some departments would contribute more than others.”