HEISENBERG UNCERTAINTY PRINCIPLE AND THE SURGICAL REGISTRAR PROBLEM - THE RATIO OF JUNIOR TO SENIOR STAFF

The surgical unit, which consists of a consultant, junior medical staff, sister, nurses and ancillary staff, is compared with an atom, where there is a nucleus formed of a proton and neutron with the surrounding electrons in orbit. Changing the number, orbit or speed of the particles will cause instability. Changing the names of the particles does not help to solve the problem of instability. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, which won him the Nobel prize in 1932, gave mathematical values to the uncertainty of observations on these particles. The structure of a basic surgical unit is similarly uncertain and difficult to analyse, but like the atom it must be stable, otherwise it splits and disintegrates. Thirteen arithmetical formulae are given to help in the analysis of a surgical nucleus; the most important one relating to time is that 7 days x 24 hours equals the 168 hours in each week during which continuous surgical cover must be provided for the care of patients.