Superstitions among perioperative nurses

AORN Journal, May, 2005 by David L. Mandell, Margie L. Claypool, David J. Kay

There is evidence that some medical superstitions, such as belief in black clouds and the effect of moon phases, are passed from senior to junior medical practitioners by word of mouth. (4) Nurses in the present study shared many of the beliefs previously reported among physicians, (4) as well as some beliefs that have not been previously investigated (eg, the belief that patients with red hair bleed more).

Nurses in this survey demonstrated widespread belief in black clouds and the detrimental effect of the full moon on work-related activities. These superstitions, which have long been perpetuated among health care professionals, may be nothing more than myths. Those practitioners who are perceived to have a black cloud hanging over them may simply be less efficient with their work. (5) Despite several studies showing that the full moon does not affect hospital admissions, ER visits, and trauma cases, unusual cases that do arrive on full moon days may be more memorable to staff members simply because of their expectations. (7) The moon has long been a convenient scapegoat for aberrant human behavior and increased ED activity and will will probably remain so despite statistical evidence to the contrary. (6,7) One author commented that belief in the lunar effect has become a self-fulfilling prophecy. (6) This may be true for many of the widely-held superstitions that were assessed in the present study.

Nurses in the present study who considered themselves to be generally superstitious were significantly younger than nurses who did not. No significant age differences were found among believers and nonbelievers for any of the individual superstitions in the survey, however, indicating that older nurses may share many of the same superstitious beliefs as their younger colleagues but may be either less likely to admit this, or less likely to view their beliefs as actual superstitions. Those nurses who did admit to being generally superstitious were found to have increased belief in some of the more supernatural superstitions in the survey, such as belief in haunted ORs and use of lucky scrubs or good luck charms.

DEFINITION OF SUPERSTITIOUS THINKING. Superstitious thinking and behavior can be viewed as a consequence of a person's misperception or misinterpretation of cause and effect, a function that is traced to activity in the hippocampus. (9) Everyday superstitions arise from a tendency to attribute causality between objects and events for which such causality does not really exist. (9) Many everyday superstitions arise in situations of uncertainty (ie, the outcome of an event is out of one's control). (9) Superstitious people tend to interpret certain coincidences in life as being due to more than mere chanced Most traditional, everyday superstitions are transmitted socially and culturally and may derive from idiosyncratic rituals related to luck and chance. (10)

LUCK, SUPERSTITION, AND NURSING SUCCESS. It has been stated that in addition to skill and competence in a professional situation, luck also plays a role in a nurse's success. (11) Belief in luck also may influence actions taken by nurses in promoting health and responding to illness. (11) Individual nurses can put the odds on their side by managing risk in terms of determinable probability, thus reducing the extent to which there is reliance on luck alone. (11) For example, a nurse can preplan before an event, inviting good luck by maximizing actions that will influence favorable outcomes. (11) This idea is exemplified by the fact that 66% of nurses in this survey believed that preparing for a bad situation ahead of time often prevents that situation from happening.