Effect of increased interprofessional familiarity on team performance, communication, and psychological safety on inpatient medical teams: A randomized clinical trial (10 October 2022)

Summary

Teamwork is critical in delivering quality medical care, and failures in team communication and coordination are substantial contributors to medical errors. This study in JAMA Internal Medicine aimed to determine the effectiveness of increased familiarity between medical resident doctors and nurses on team performance, psychological safety and communication.

The authors found that increased familiarity between nurses and residents promoted rapid improvement of nursing perception of team relationships and, over time, led to higher team performance on complex cognitive tasks in medical simulations. They argue that medical systems should consider increasing team familiarity as a way to improve doctor-nursing teamwork and patient care.