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Showing results for tags 'Teamwork'.
Found 187 results
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Content ArticleThe Patient Safety Incident Response Framework (PSIRF) sets out the NHS’s approach to developing and maintaining effective systems and processes for responding to patient safety incidents for the purpose of learning and improving patient safety. In this video, Lucy Winstanley, Head of Patient Safety and Quality at West Suffolk NHS Foundation Trust, reflects on her trust's experience of being a PSIRF early adopter. Lucy talks about the benefits of PSIRF and how to make it work in practice. She highlights the need for effective collaboration between teams and the importance of engaging with patients, families and staff in new ways.
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Content ArticleThis editorial in BMJ Quality & Safety argues that patients' perceptions of their safety should not be dismissed when measuring healthcare safety. The authors argue that a differentiation between ‘feeling safe’, as defined through patient experience, and ‘being safe’, as defined through observation and evaluation using clinical outcomes selected by quality experts, creates a power differential and dynamic that degrades the role and value of patient experiences as valid patient safety indicators.
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Content ArticleThis article in Social Science & Medicine aims to show how patients’ contributions to their safety in hospital are less about involvement as a deliberate intervention, and more about how patients manage their own vulnerability in their interactions with staff. The article outlines the conflict between the current focus on encouraging patients to speak up, raise queries and take ownership of their healthcare, and the relational vulnerability created by the 'sick role'—an established societal role that excuses people from their normal duties in society and entitles them to seek help. The authors highlight that supporting staff to elicit concerns from patients, and offer assurance that challenge is welcome, will be crucial in creating an environment where patients can become fully involved in own safety.
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Content ArticleThis ethnographic qualitative study in the BMJ aimed to describe how patients are engaged with cancer decisions in the context of multidisciplinary teams (MDT) and how MDT recommendations are carried out in the context of a shared decision. The study was carried out at four head and neck cancer centres in the north of England. The authors found that the current model of MDT decision-making does not support shared decision-making, and may actively undermine it. They recommend the development of a model that allows the individual patient more input into MDT discussions, and where decisions are made on potential treatment options rather than providing a single recommendation for discussion with the patient. Deeper consideration should be given to how the MDT incorporates the patient perspective and/or delivers its discussion of options to the patient.
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News Article
"They don’t hide from the coronavirus, they confront it"
Patient Safety Learning posted a news article in News
As the world writhes in the grip of Covid-19, the epidemic has revealed something majestic and inspiring: millions of health care workers running to where they are needed, on duty, sometimes risking their own lives. In his article in the New York Times, Don Berwick says he has never before seen such an extensive, voluntary outpouring of medical help at such a global scale. Millions of health care workers are running to where they are needed, sometimes risking their lives. Intensive care doctors in Seattle connect with intensive care doctors in Wuhan to gather specific intelligence on what the Chinese have learned: details of diagnostic strategies, the physiology of the disease, approaches to managing lung failure, and more. City by city, hospitals mobilise creatively to get ready for the possible deluge: bring in retired staff members, train nurses and doctors in real time, share data on supplies around the region, set up special isolation units and scale up capacity by a factor of 100 or 1000. "We are witnessing professionalism in its highest form, skilled people putting the interests of those they serve above their own interests." Read full article Source: New York Times, 23 March 2020 -
Content ArticleThis study in the International Journal for Quality in Health Care aimed to develop and test a handover performance tool (HPT) able to help clinicians to systematically assess the quality and safety of shift handovers. The study was conducted in the paediatrics, obstetrics and gynaecology wards of a UK district hospital. 30 human factor experts participated in the development phase and 62 doctors from various disciplines were asked to validate the tool. The authors found that, according to the HPT, communication determined the majority of handover quality, with teamwork and situation awareness also important factors in the overall quality rating. They found that the HPT demonstrated good validity and reliability and can be easily used by raters with different backgrounds and in several clinical settings.
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Content Article
Safety culture discussion cards (Eurocontrol)
Patient Safety Learning posted an article in Good practice
Safety culture has been shown to be a key predictor of safety performance in several industries. It is the difference between a safe organisation and an accident waiting to happen. Thinking and talking about our safety culture is essential for us to understand what we do well, and where we need to improve. These cards from Eurocontrol are designed to help us to do this. -
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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Content ArticleThis systematic review in The Journal of Advanced Nursing aimed to synthesise current knowledge about the impact of safety briefings on improving patient safety. The authors found that safety briefings achieved beneficial outcomes and can improve safety culture. Beneficial outcomes included: improved risk identification. reduced falls. enhanced relationships. increased incident reporting. ability to voice concerns. reduced length of stay.
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Content ArticleVariation in healthcare processes is widespread in mental health care and can lead to inefficient processes and unnecessarily long inpatient stays. This study in The British Journal of Healthcare Management aimed to identify sources of variation and introduce a huddle intervention to increase system efficiency on a psychiatric inpatient ward in London. The study found that huddles are a useful way to improve staff communication and increase ward efficiency without taking up a significant amount of clinicians' time.
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Content ArticleA Patient Safety Huddle is a brief multidisciplinary daily meeting held to discuss threats to patient safety and actions to mitigate risk. This evaluation of The Huddle Up for Safer Healthcare (HUSH) project in BMC Health Services Research aims to assess the impact on teamwork and safety culture of the project, which implemented PSHs in 92 wards at five hospitals, across three NHS Trusts. This paper also seeks to add to the evidence-base around huddles as a mechanism for improving safety.
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Content ArticleThis short article describes how maternity and neonatal teams across Herefordshire and Worcestershire Local Maternity and Neonatal System (LMNS) have been using video conferencing technology to drive safety improvements for mothers and babies, thanks to the launch of their new daily digital safety huddles.
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Content ArticleIn this blog for the Nursing Times, Fiona Hibberts, head of the Nightingale Academy and consultant nurse at Guy's and St Thomas' NHS Foundation Trust, discusses the importance of huddles in improving patient safety and care, and in providing emotional support for staff. The author describes a huddle as "a gathering of key individuals, at a given time, to briefly discuss safety aspects of care of a group of patients in real time, escalate concerns and make plans," and highlights their importance for staff morale during the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Content ArticleThis systematic review in BMJ Quality & Safety looks at existing research into the impact of hospital-based safety huddles. The authors found that while there are many anecdotal accounts of successful huddle programmes, there is not yet much high-quality peer-reviewed evidence regarding the effectiveness of hospital-based safety huddles. They suggest that additional rigorous research is needed to enhance collective understanding of how huddles impact patient safety and other outcomes. The review proposes a taxonomy and standardised reporting measures for future studies, to enhance comparability and evidence quality.
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Content Article
Evaluation of huddles: a multisite study (1 July 2017)
Patient-Safety-Learning posted an article in Techniques
This article in The Health Care Manager examines the value of 'huddles' - regular, interdisciplinary group meetings - in improving communication among disciplines, resolving problems and sharing information. The authors found that the primary function of huddles was the exchange of information that posed or had the potential to pose safety risks to patients. Staff reported that huddles were useful in improving awareness of safety concerns and also improved communication between disciplines. -
Content ArticleThis case study looks at how implementing a daily emergency call safety huddle at Surrey and Sussex Healthcare NHS Trust has increased efficiency in team working and improved patient safety. A safety huddle is a short multidisciplinary briefing, held at a predictable time and place, and focused on the patients most at risk. By implementing the ten-minute daily safety huddle, the medical emergency and cardiac arrest teams improved patient outcomes and staff experience, and were able to make better use of resources.
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Content ArticleThis video presents some highlights of the HSJ Patient Safety Awards on 20 September 2021 at Manchester Central, and includes short interviews with some of the judges and award winners. The HSJ Patient Safety Awards were set up to recognise and celebrate projects that improve patient safety and quality of care. This year, the judges commented that nominees across 23 categories were all of a very high quality and presented innovative projects that made real improvements to patient safety in the NHS. "The quality of this year was quite phenomenal - we were really impressed at how inventive people had been in coming up with solutions to COVID as part of safety strategies," said Lesley Durham, President of the International Society of Rapid Response Systems and member of the awards judging panel. The awards showcase excellent projects and ways of working that have potential to be replicated in other areas. A team from Devon Partnership Trust/Royal Devon and Exeter Foundation Trust won the award for Mental Health Initiative of the Year for their project 'Connecting physical and mental health services in Gastroenterology'. A representative from the team said, "What we want to do now is take this, shout about it and make it happen elsewhere." Many award winners commented on the importance of teamwork across services and trusts and recognised that collaboration was a key part of the success of their projects. View the full list of award winners
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Content ArticleThe Point of Care Foundation have developed Team Time in response to the Coronavirus pandemic. Team Time is a 45-minute reflective practice that is run and facilitated online and provides an opportunity for people taking part to share experiences of their work in health and social care. As with Schwartz Rounds the focus is on participants’ emotional and social response to their work. However, unlike Schwartz Rounds, the audience is limited in size and is intended to be drawn from an area/department of a health/social care site rather than from across the organisation. The audience will comprise colleagues who have ‘common cause with others in a specialty/pathway’ and consider each other colleagues in the work of that area. Please note that Team Time training is available only to trained Schwartz Rounds facilitators.
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Content ArticleThis book aims to teach the key principles of patient safety to a diverse audience: physicians, nurses, pharmacists, other healthcare providers, quality and safety professionals, risk managers, hospital administrators, and others. It is suitable for all levels of readers: from the senior physician trying to learn this new way of approaching his or her work, to the medical or nursing student, to the risk manager or hospital board member seeking to get more involved in institutional safety efforts. Understanding Patient Safety is divided into three main sections. In Section I, it describes the epidemiology of error, distinguishes safety from quality, discusses the key mental models that inform our modern understanding of the safety field, and summarises the policy environment for patient safety. In Section II, it reviews different error types, taking advantage of real cases to describe various kinds of mistakes and safety hazards, introduces new terminology, and discusses what we know about how errors happen and how they can be prevented. Although many prevention strategies will be touched on in Section II, more general issues regarding various strategies (from both individual institutional and broader policy perspectives) will be reviewed in Section III. After a concluding chapter, the Appendix includes a wide array of resources, from helpful Web sites to a patient safety glossary.
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Content ArticleEvidence on heterogeneity in outcomes of surgical quality interventions in low-income and middle-income countries is limited. Alidina et al. explored the factors driving performance in the Safe Surgery 2020 intervention in Tanzania’s Lake Zone to distil implementation lessons for low-resource settings. They found that performance experiences of higher and lower performers differed on the following themes: (1) preintervention context, (2) engagement with Safe Surgery 2020 interventions, (3) teamwork and communication orientation, (4) collective learning orientation, (5) role of leadership, and (6) perceived impact of Safe Surgery 2020 and beyond. Higher performers had a culture of teamwork which helped them capitalise on Safe Surgery 2020 to improve surgical ecosystems holistically on safety practices, teamwork and communication. Lower performers prioritised overhauling safety practices and began considering organisational cultural changes much later. Thus, while also improving, lower performers prioritised different goals and trailed higher performers on the change continuum. The authors conclude that future interventions should be tailored to facility context and invest in strengthening teamwork, communication and collective learning and facilitate leadership engagement to build a receptive climate for successful implementation of safe surgery interventions.
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Content ArticleThis project, led by Hertfordshire Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, focused on acute mental health care and dementia care pathways across the Eastern region’s five mental health trusts. It aimed to improve patient safety in mental health care by addressing teamwork and communication issues that can affect the safety and effectiveness of care, and patient experience. Clinical teams were trained in system safety assessment (SSA) and human factors (HF).
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Content ArticleIn this reflection, published in the BMJ's Post Graduate Medical Journal, Dr John Launer talks about an exercise to help people to become better supervisors, to use peer supervision as a safe space for people to develop better interactional skills generally – and particularly to cultivate their curiosity.
