Search the hub
Showing results for tags 'Teamwork'.
Found 187 results
-
Content ArticleProcesses relating to communication between healthcare professionals are complex and vulnerable to breakdown. In the electronic health record (EHR)-enabled healthcare environment, providers rely on technology to support and manage complex communication processes, and if implemented and used correctly, EHRs have potential to improve safety. This clinician communication self-assessment guide aims to help healthcare professionals determine how safe their practice is in relation to electronic health records (EHR) and communication.
-
Content ArticleTeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies & Tools to Enhance Performance & Patient Safety) is an evidence-based set of teamwork tools created by the US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ). It aims to optimise patient outcomes by improving communication and teamwork skills among healthcare professionals. An organisational readiness assessment, other guidance and all curriculum materials are available on this website.
-
Content ArticleA Treatment Escalation Plan (TEP) is a communication tool designed to improve quality of care in hospital, particularly if patients deteriorate. TEPs aim to reduce variation caused by discontinuity of care, avoid harms caused by inappropriate treatment and promote patients’ priorities and preferences. This article in the Journal of the Royal College of Physicians of Edinburgh examines the key components of a TEP, how and why TEPs should be implemented and the outcome-related evidence to support their use.
-
News Article
Lack of ‘psychological safety’ at trust with ‘acceptance of poor behaviours’
Patient-Safety-Learning posted a news article in News
An acute trust has “palpable” cultural problems and staff “at all levels” have described an acceptance of “poor behaviours”, according to the Care Quality Commission. Some staff at Gloucestershire Hospitals Foundation Trust also reported a lack of trust in their senior managers and a “fear of speaking up”. The Care Quality Commission feedback was set out in a post-inspection letter to the trust’s acting chief executive Mark Pietroni last month following an inspection in June. The trust’s CEO Deborah Lee is currently off work as she recovers from a stroke. According to the CQC letter, published in the trust’s board papers ahead of a full inspection report which is due in the autumn, staff “articulated [to inspectors and said they] had observed rudeness and incivility throughout the organisation”. In a written statement, Professor Pietroni told HSJ he “fully recognised” the CQC’s feedback. Read full story (paywalled) Source: HSJ (24 August 2022) -
Content Article
Communication in the operating theatre (14 November 2013)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Surgery
Communication is extremely important to ensure safe and effective clinical practice. This systematic literature review of observational studies addressing communication in the operating theatre aimed to gain an understanding of actual communication practices, rather than what was reported through recollections and interviews. In all of the studies reviewed, communication was found to affect operating theatre practices. Further detailed observational research is needed to gain a better understanding of how to improve the working environment and patient safety in theatre. -
Content ArticleWelcome to the being better together podcast, from Learning from Excellence and Civility Saves Lives. This podcast from Learning from Excellence and Civility Saves Lives is a series of conversations with people who inspire us, about making healthcare a better place to work. It covers a wealth of topics, from workplace cultures, through inspiration, laughter and joy, to appreciative inquiry and how do work safely.
-
Content ArticlePoor communication among healthcare professionals contributes to widespread barriers to patient safety. The word “communication” means to share or make common. In research literature, two communication paradigms dominate: communication as a transactional process responsible for information exchange communication as a transformational process responsible for causing change. Implementation science has focused on information exchange attributes while largely ignoring transformational attributes of communication. This article in the journal Implementation Science debates the merits of encompassing both approaches.
-
Content ArticleHip fracture is a serious, life-changing injury that can affect older people, and is the most common reason for them to need emergency anaesthesia and surgery. The Physiotherapy Hip Fracture Sprint Audit (PHFSA) was the biggest ever audit of UK physiotherapy, and has implications for physiotherapists working in many settings.
-
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Jordan talks to us about his journey from drama school to patient safety, how the new Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) will change the way the NHS looks at safety, and how his love of driving makes him think differently about his role. A transcript of the interview is also available below.- Posted
- 1 comment
-
1
-
- (and 6 more)
-
Content ArticleEach year, 7,000 to 9,000 people die as a result of a medication errors in the US, and the total cost of looking after patients with medication-associated errors exceeds $40 billion. Alongside this financial cost, adverse events caused by medication errors also cause patients significant psychological and physical pain and suffering. The article aims to: identify the most common medication errors. review some of the critical points at which medication errors are most likely to occur. outline strategies to prevent medication errors occurring. summarise multidisciplinary team strategies for decreasing medication errors.
-
Content Article
This is part of our series of Patient Safety Spotlight interviews, where we talk to people working for patient safety about their role and what motivates them. Annie talks to us about her work training teams in safety behaviours, why productivity and safety must go hand-in-hand, and how working on patient safety is like running a marathon. -
Content ArticleThe consultancy firm McKinsey & Company explored the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the nursing workforce in a global survey that included nurses from United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan, Brazil and France. The survey findings show a consistency around how nurses feel in their roles today, despite the different healthcare systems and delivery networks in each of the six countries. A substantial population of nurses are expressing a desire to leave direct patient care, with between 28% and 38% of nurse respondents in the United States, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Japan and France indicating that they were likely to leave their current role in direct patient care in the next year. This article explores in detail some of the reasons why nurses are choosing to leave direct patient care, and highlights approaches that might encourage retention, including positive leadership initiatives.
-
Content ArticleHuman error is as old as humankind itself and widely recognised as a significant cause of mistakes. Much of the research in this area has originated from high-risk organisations (HROs), including commercial aviation, where even simple mistakes can be catastrophic. A failure to understand and recognise how Human Factors (HF), especially those that affect performance and team working, can contribute or lead to serious medical error is still widespread across healthcare. Sadly, this commonly occurs in the operating theatre, one of the most dangerous places in hospital. While attitudes and acceptance of pre-surgery briefings has improved using the World Health Service (WHO) Surgical Checklist, this does not address other 'personal' factors that can lead to error, including stress, fatigue, emotional status, hunger and situational awareness. Following initial work around HF perception amongst operating theatre teams, Peter Brennan's (student at the University of Portsmouth) research has lead to significant delivery changes to the high stakes Membership of the Royal College of Surgeons (MRCS) examination, taken by up tp 6,500 junior doctors per year. After recognising boredom and fatigue in examiners, further published studies found an improvement in examiner morale with no significant changes in exam reliability or overall candidate outcome. These changes have improved patient safety at a National level. Other high stakes National Events have been evaluated where repetitive assessment occurs during long days, providing reassurance to organisers and the General Medical Council. 28 HF-related publications have been included in this work, including several reviews of important personal factors that affect performance and how these can be optimised at work.
-
Content ArticleJunior doctors can struggle with decision-making in emergency departments because they worry about “looking silly” in front of senior colleagues, a study has found. A team from the Healthcare Safety Investigation Branch (HSIB) looked at missed or delayed diagnosis of conditions in A&E. They specifically examined cases of pulmonary embolism and focused on diagnostic decision-making using applied cognitive task analysis. Interviews with medical staff found a number of factors which were common among expert level doctors. These included being aware of life-threatening conditions and seeking to rule them out, being comfortable in expressing doubt and seeking out peers to challenge their diagnosis. Junior staff on the other hand often tried to fit symptoms to specific conditions and had a fear of making wrong a diagnosis. Some said they were afraid of “looking silly in front of a senior”. The study, presented at an online session at the Ergonomics & Human Factors 2022 conference, suggested looking at how younger staff can be supported in improving their decision-making. HSIB investigator Nick Woodier, who presented the study, said: “Decision-making is a skill, commonly developed in healthcare through experience without formal training or opportunities to practise it.” You can view the presentation from the link below.
-
Content Article
Human factors - Safer surgery checklist (June 2022)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Surgery
This literature review in The Operating Theatre Journal looks at 'How industry has helped healthcare better understand human factors'. The author, Nigel Roberts, Theatre Lead at the University Hospitals of Derby and Burton, looks at this question in relation to teamwork, leadership, situational awareness, communication and culture. -
Content ArticleThis practice pointer in The BMJ explains why diagnostic errors occur and provides five strategies that healthcare workers can use to achieve diagnostic excellence. Each of these strategies is explored in detail: Seek diagnostic feedback, which includes tracking patient outcomes and seeking feedback from patients, families and other healthcare workers. "Byte sized" learning, which involves digital learning activities. Consider bias by getting to know patients and treating them as individuals, and through taking a 'diagnostic pause' to consider whether bias is playing into decisions. Make diagnosis a team sport through multidisciplinary huddles that include healthcare workers from different professions. Foster critical thinking by using intentional strategies to foster reflective scepticism and regular review.
-
Content ArticleThis study in Risk Management and Healthcare Policy aimed to explore healthcare workers’ perceptions of patient safety culture at primary healthcare centres in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia, and the factors that influence them. It also aimed to identify the challenges of adopting patient safety culture in these centres. The study findings highlight a number of areas for improvement, particularly in relation to event reporting, non-punitive responses, and openness in communication. The authors highlight that error reporting should not just be considered a means of learning from mistakes, but should also be considered the first step towards preventing injury and improving patient safety. They highlight the need to eliminate three crucial elements associated with errors - blame, fear, and silence - in order to build a safety culture.
-
Event
Human Factors in your work and your team
Patient Safety Learning posted an event in Community Calendar
This virtual masterclass, facilitated by Mr Perbinder Grewal, will guide you in how to use Human Factors in your workplace. All medical and non-medical staff should attend. Leadership in the NHS is the responsibility of all staff. Understanding human factors will allow healthcare to enhance performance, culture and organisation. It can be used to assess why things go wrong and how to implement change to prevent it from happening again or mitigate the risks. Perbinder Grewal is a Consultant Surgeon. He is a human factors and patient safety trainer. He leads on medical education both locally and nationally. He is a Member of the Faculty of Surgical Trainers at the Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh. He has a passion for training and medical education. He is a Module Tutor for the ChM in Vascular Surgery for the University of Edinburgh and Tutor for the ChM in General Surgery for the past 5 years. He has Postgraduate Certificates in Leadership and Coaching. Register -
Content ArticleThe aim of this study, published in BMJ Quality and Safety, was to assess the role of intraoperative non-routine events and team performance on paediatric cardiac surgery outcomes. It focuses on improving methods for studying teamwork.
-
Content ArticleThis article, published in BMJ Quality and Safety, examines the relationships between non-routine events, teamwork and patient outcomes in paediatric cardiac surgery. Structured observation of effective teamwork in the operating room can identify deficiencies in the system and conduct of procedures, even in otherwise successful operations. High performing teams are more resilient, displaying effective teamwork when operations become more difficult.
-
Content ArticleThe CQC inspection framework now includes multidisciplinary teams (MDTs) for end of life care, tumours and weekly MDTs for people with complex needs. However lack of time and staff availability for this is a real problem. MDTs are under increasing pressure and are already seeing an erosion of their power to assure safe and appropriate care. Anecdotally, non-attendance by key MDT members is a significant quality issue for many hospitals. This is not a problem of engagement — all MDT members and are willing to provide input — but staffing pressures and the complexity of rostering makes holding these MDT meetings near-impossible. So how do we stop this degradation? How can hospitals better manage the burgeoning requirement for MDTs? One possible answer is to change the emphasis from a single meeting to a managed series of recorded opinions and decisions. If properly supported by the right workflow technology, we can move away from the ‘single-point’ MDT meeting (MDTM) to a ‘multi-point’ MDT process (MDTP) which could allow better and more auditable decisions to be made. Where significant differences of opinion exist, then a meeting can be called – but the MDT members could act independently and in parallel using a suitable recording and monitoring system. In this article, Dr D J Hamblin-Brown explains how this might work.
-
Content ArticleIn this interview for Patient Safety & Quality Healthcare, Andrea Truex, chief nursing officer of Englewood Community Hospital, Florida, talks about how focusing on communication can enhance patient safety.
-
Content ArticleResearch shows that patient safety walk rounds are an appropriate and common method to improve safety culture. This observational study in The Joint Commission Journal on Quality and Patient Safety combined walk rounds with observations of specific aspects of patient safety and measured the safety and teamwork climate. Healthcare workers were observed in specific aspects of patient safety on walk rounds in eight settings in a Swiss hospital. They were also surveyed using safety and teamwork climate scales before the initial walk rounds and six to nine months later. The authors evaluated the implementation of planned improvement actions following the walk rounds. The authors found that walk rounds with structured in-person observations identified safe care practices and issues in patient safety. However, improvement action plans to address these issues were not fully implemented nine months later, and there were no significant changes in the safety and teamwork climate.
-
Content ArticleThis systematic review in Nursing Open synthesises the best available evidence on the impact of nurses' safety attitudes on patient outcomes in acute care hospitals. The review included nine studies and found that nurses with positive safety attitudes reported: fewer patient falls and medication errors fewer pressure injuries and healthcare-associated infections fewer mortalities fewer physical restraints and vascular access device reactions higher patient satisfaction. The authors also found that effective teamwork led to a reduction in adverse patient outcomes. They conclude that a positive safety culture results in fewer reported adverse patient outcomes, and that nurse managers can improve nurses' safety attitudes by promoting a non-punitive response to error reporting and promoting effective teamwork and good communication.
-
Content ArticleIn this blog, Kerry Robinson, director of performance, improvement and organisational development at The Robert Jones and Agnes Hunt Orthopaedic Hospital NHS Foundation Trust, describes a systemic approach to quality improvement that involves board members having a visible role in the process. The aim is to ensure the board's actions match up with the rhetoric on leadership for improvement. Kerry explains the actions she is personally taking as a board member to lead by example in quality improvement.
