Tools For Facilitating Health Care Team Work Communication

Tools for Facilitating Health Care Team Work
Communication
One likely cause of errors is when a health professional communicates with a colleague but does
not check whether that colleague has correctly received the message, and/or when the colleague
does not check that they have understood it.
Situational awareness and shared mental models

Situational awareness is defined as an “accurate awareness or understanding of the situation in
which the team is functioning” (Alonso and Dunleavy, 2013)
Leadership
Sometimes errors happen because staff are not comfortable raising concerns or clarifying
ambiguous messages or situations. If you are a team leader, you can create a positive culture by
telling your team you want them to raise any concerns and ask any questions they may have,
however trivial, without fear
Mutual support
Imagine a busy acute admissions ward, with four bays and one nurse allocated to each of them.
Closed-loop communication
Closed-loop communication is a technique that reduces the risk of errors arising from
misunderstandings and wrong assumptions.
Readback
Readback is similar to closed-loop communication. It involves reading back to the sender
information they have given to you in order to check you have correctly understood it.
SBAR tool
The SBAR communication tool, used in many NHS trusts, structures communication in four
stages:
 S: situation; Hello, this is Peter Jones. I am a staff nurse on Ward 25. I am calling about
Mr Smith.
 B: background; Mr Smith is 92. He was admitted yesterday with chest pain. He has had
two MIs in the past and has heart failure.
 A: assessment; I have assessed him today and I am worried – he looks very unwell. His
respiration rate is 34 and his oxygen saturations are 86% on 15L. His NEWS is eight.
 R: recommendation; I would like you to come and see him now please.
Checklists
As well as maintaining our situational awareness and sharing observations with colleagues, we
need to be aware of our own vulnerability and potential for making errors. This can be done
through a simple self-checking exercise using either the I’M SAFE checklist or the ‘three bucket’
model.
The I’M SAFE checklist, which is a TeamSTEPPS tool, stands for:
 I: illness;
 M: medication;
 S: stress;
 A: alcohol and drugs;
 F: fatigue;
 E: eating and elimination
Safety huddles
A safety huddle is a brief coming together of staff, once or more in a shift, aimed at maintaining
situational awareness, sharing observations and going through risks.
Debriefs
Debriefs are short meetings at the end of a shift to review how the team has performed.
Human factors
Human factors comprise everything that affects us when we are at work. The Clinical Human
Factors Group defines human factors in the work context as “the environmental, organisational
and job factors, and individual characteristics which influence behaviour at work”.
Nurses role in establishing collaborative relationship in the
delivery of health care programs
and services
Collaborative care is a healthcare model which aims to improve patient outcomes through inter-
professional cooperation. This will commonly include a primary or tertiary care team working with
allied health professionals – such as dieticians, physiotherapists or mental health professionals – or
medical specialists.
Effective collaboration encourages patients, families and healthcare providers to be active

participants in the treatment process which in turn promotes improved quality outcomes,
improvements in patient experience, patient safety, and effective use of resources
The role of nurses in collaborative care
Nurses are the only clinical professionals who are specially trained to understand the roles of other
healthcare providers, this training provides a strong foundation for successful collaboration.
Effective communication is critical for a collaborative care plan to work; nurses are trained to have
adaptability, empathy, and communication skills, which allows for them to be excellent leaders and
members of a care team.
Nurses’ ability to understand and assess a patient’s clinical, emotional, and social needs can help
them to call upon available resources and create a patient-focused care plan. As nurses are offering
direct patient care around the clock, they have a unique and focused view of how that care should be
provided.
Nurses can be role models in their honest and open communication with team members about the
quality of patient care which is being provided and the work environment.
The benefits of collaborative nursing
The ‘Ways Of Working In Nursing, Resource Package’ issued by New South Wales Government
outlines the following ways in which collaborative nursing can be beneficial for nurses (2);
 Allows nurses from various backgrounds and levels of expertise to perform their duties
effectively
 Ensures that temporary staff and ‘transitioning to practice’ nurses have improved supervision
by senior nursing staff

 Takes advantage of knowledge and experience of each team members, which also leads to
professional development and increased knowledge for junior staff

 Reduction in staff isolation and a more supportive working environment

 Patient outcomes and satisfaction is improved

 Individual team members can familiarise themselves with each other’s skills and capacities

 Significantly reduced risk of missed care (any patient care which is omitted or delayed)

 The workload is shared which can reduce nurse stress levels and potential manual handling
injuries

 Increased job satisfaction and morale

 Nursing duties are made easier if team members are working together in a close environment
and can assist and support one another
Collaborative care has proven to be highly beneficial for nurses, patients and overall performance of
healthcare teams by increasing patient safety and also providing nurses with valuable healthcare
experience and insight.
Such outcomes can only suggest that the use of collaborative healthcare teams will increase in
numbers across hospitals around the country to provide optimal services to patients in the future.

Tools For Facilitating Health Care Team Work Communication

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Tools For Facilitating Health Care Team Work Communication

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Tools for Facilitating Health Care Team Work

Situational awareness and shared mental models

The I’M SAFE checklist, which is a TeamSTEPPS tool, stands for:

Effective collaboration encourages patients, families and healthcare providers to be active

The role of nurses in collaborative care

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