Below Ten Thousand video

Summary

Below Ten Thousand is a language-based safety tool for any clinical arena where 'noise and distraction' is a problem, and where high performance teams need to quickly gain 'situational awareness' and ‘directed focus’ in order to successfully navigate the perils of acute healthcare whilst providing first class interventions. 

Content

The operating theatre works daily by the premise of ‘surgical precision’. Every opportunity to work as a holistic team is embraced, not only as an effective way to get things done, but also as a way to maximise patient safety and reduce risk.

Given the intensity of the work and the mandatory desire for a good outcome, surgeons, anaesthetists, nurses and theatre technicians are embracing a new concept in operating theatre team dynamics. The concept has been developed by nurses at Geelong Hospital. John Gibbs, a Clinical Nurse Specialist in Anaesthetics, studied Crew Resource Management strategies common in the airline industry and found that some dimensions of aeronautical crew resource engineering could solve dilemmas in his operating theatre environment, in particular, the reduction of ambient noise and distractions at sentinel times of anaesthesia.

In collaboration with other staff, he has worked on and improved upon the idea, finally arriving at the prototype concept of ‘Below Ten Thousand’ for the surgical and clinical setting.