In a recently published study, 200 surgical procedures were observed to record the social interactions of O.R. teams. Cooperation was found to increase with an increased proportion of females in the O.R. The most cooperative groups were those consisting of a female surgeon and an all-male surgical support team or a male surgeon with a team of at least 2/3 females. Overall, 59% of the interactions were cooperative (advancing patient safety), 3% were conflict-inducing (potentially diminishing patient safety), with the remainder constituting gossip, joking, flirting, and other conversations not associated with patient care. The lowest levels of cooperative behaviors (39% of interactions) were found among all male surgical teams working with a male surgeon.
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