The Role of Time Pressure in Clinical Judgements
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2018-07-06
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en
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Abstract
In clinical practice, clinical decisions play a major role in diagnoses, which in turn determine
the treatment approach. Clinicians making these decisions are subject to a wide variety of
outside influences, with time pressure being a highly relevant influence in the (mental) health
care sector. Studies on non-clinical decision making found that time pressure impairs the
decision making process. Decisions made under time pressure are based on fewer pieces of
information, which is called premature closure, and are also less accurate. Furthermore,
premature closure itself is also linked to less accurate decisions. However, none of these
findings have been proven in a clinical decision making setting. Therefore, we designed the
present study to assess the effects of time pressure on clinical decisions. We expected time
pressure to lead to reduced accuracy and premature closure, with premature closure also being
correlated with reduced accuracy. We approached clinical psychology master students to
complete several diagnostic tasks while time pressure was induced and compared that to a
baseline measurement without time pressure. The results showed that time pressure did not
lead to reduced accuracy or premature closure. However, premature closure was
independently linked to reduced accuracy. The results are discussed in the light of their
relevance to the clinical practice and the limitations of this study.
Keywords: Clinical decision making, time pressure, premature closure, diagnoses
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Faculteit der Sociale Wetenschappen