Journal
AUSTRALASIAN EMERGENCY CARE
Volume 22, Issue 1, Pages 1-7Publisher
ELSEVIER SCI LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.auec.2018.11.003
Keywords
Multi-professional training; Trauma care; Patient outcome; Simulation; Team training; Teamwork skills
Categories
Funding
- Western Sydney Local Health District Research Network Grant Scheme, NSW
Ask authors/readers for more resources
Introduction: Effective teamwork is imperative in the emergency trauma setting as trauma teams work in the uncertain and complex context of resuscitating critically injured patients. Poorly performing teams have the potential to contribute to adverse events. Efforts to improve teamwork in trauma include simulation-based multidisciplinary team training with a non-technical skills (NTS) focus. However, there is a lack of evidence linking teamwork training programs with the uptake of NTS in real life trauma resuscitations. The aim of this study was to understand trauma team members' perspectives and experiences of teamwork in real world trauma resuscitations at a Level 1 Trauma Hospital, following completion of a simulated multidisciplinary Trauma Team Training (TTT) program. Method: Semi-structured interviews were used to explore trauma team members' experiences and perspectives of the impact of TTT on the team's performance. Trauma team members who had completed TTT were invited to participate in the study. Fifteen participants from various disciplines (nursing, medical, allied health) and specialities (emergency, intensive care, trauma, anaesthetics, allied health) were interviewed. Qualitative data were thematically analysed. Results: The overarching finding was that teamwork was the essential component to facilitate a group of skilled experts to collectively perform at an optimum level in emergency trauma care. Four main themes were developed: Leader-follower synergy promotes trauma teamwork; Instability and inconsistency threaten trauma teamwork; Clear communication enhances trauma team decision-making and Team training improves trauma team performance. Conclusion: A quickly constructed specialty team with unstable membership, will not transform naturally into an expert trauma team. The creation and maintenance of effective trauma teams requires training strategies such as multidisciplinary simulation that target team training and team interaction. Specifically, training should focus on developing non-technical skills for resuscitation trauma teams that have to form quickly and function effectively, often having never met before. As participants were overwhelmingly female, the data generated by this study are not necessarily generalisable to male members of trauma teams. Crown Copyright (C) 2018 Published by Elsevier Ltd on behalf of College of Emergency Nursing Australasia. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available