Surgeons resisting checklists is new to me. Do you have a reference other than a TV show? My understanding until now was that checklists are extensively used in medicine.
> Despite all the evidence, Gawande admits that even he was skeptical that using a checklist in everyday practice would help to save the lives of his patients.
> "I didn't expect it," Gawande says with a chuckle. "It's massively improved the kind of results that I'm getting. When we implemented this checklist in eight other hospitals, I started using it because I didn't want to be a hypocrite. But hey, I'm at Harvard, did I need a checklist? No."
https://www.npr.org/2010/01/05/122226184/atul-gawandes-check...
Not sure if this supports the reluctance idea since it says 93% use checklists, but most surgeons don't think it improves safety.
> Of the 353 survey respondents, 93.6% use SSCs and 62.6% would want one used in their own child’s operation, but only 54.7% felt that checklists improve patient safety.
The part you quoted from your second link directly contradicts your claim that most surgeons don't think it improves safety (even if the 54.7% is among the 93.6% that use it that still gives 51% that think it improves safety).