A recent study paints a grim picture of what rudeness does to doctors and nurses performance. The study, "The Impact of Rudeness on Medical Team Performance: A Randomized Trial," which was published in the September issue of Pediatrics, shows that a rude comment from a third-party doctor decreased performance among doctors and nurses by more than 50 percent in an exercise involving a hypothetical life-or-death situation.

When disruptive behaviors cause these mental resources to fail, medical teams are putting patients at risk because they are physically unable to focus past the rude comment. These doctors and nurses are making mistakes, and then they can’t recognize or adapt to those mistakes.

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