The New York Times reported on an interesting study in an article titled "What Happens When Parents are Rude in the Hospital." A researcher at Tel Aviv University investigated simulated crisis scenarios in a neonatal ICU. Actors, posing as parents of tiny patients, gave a variety of feedback to the medical staff. For example, one rude actor in the study played a "mother" who complained loudly enough for the medical staff to hear: "I knew we should have gone to a better hospital where they don't practice Third World medicine."
The research shows that even "such mild unpleasantness" was enough to negatively impact the performance of doctors and nurses. In fact, their ability to perform in these crisis situations was negatively affected for the rest of the day. The organizers of the study conclude that "rudeness explained more error than the levels of error that have been shown to result from sleep deprivation."
