This 2005 report, commissioned by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), assesses the status of relevant team training research from aviation and other domains and applies this research to the field of medicine. It additionally provides a comprehensive review and evaluation of current medical team training initiatives and their effectiveness.
Key Conclusions
1. The science of team performance and training can help the medical community improve patient safety. A general science of team performance and training has evolved and matured over the last 20 years. This science has produced a number of principles, lessons learned, tools, and guidelines that will serve the patient safety movement.
2. Research has already identified many of the competencies that are necessary for effective teamwork in medical environments. The science of team performance and training has identified the competencies that are required for effective team functioning in a number of complex settings. Many, if not most, of these competencies apply to the medical community.
3. A number of proven instructional strategies are available for promoting effective teamwork. The science of team performance and training has also developed and validated numerous training strategies that can provide requisite competencies to teams who perform in complex environments. These strategies extend beyond CRM training and could easily be adapted to health care.
4. The medical community has made considerable progress in designing and implementing team training across a number of settings. Our review of existing medical team training programs clearly shows that the health care community is striving to implement CRM training across a number of medical domains. We recommend that this trend be continued. However, the extent to which these programs are being implemented with the help of what we know from the science of learning, of team performance and of training is less clear. Thus, we recommend strengthening the link between scientific knowledge and medical-team training.
5. The institutionalization of medical-team training across different medical settings has not been addressed. To make teamwork a common, effective practice throughout the delivery of health care, there is an imperative need to embed team training in professional development. By "embedding" we mean implementing and regulating team training throughout a health care provider's career.
To learn more click on any of the links below to go to AHRQ.gov:
Medical Teamwork and Patient Safety: The Evidence based Relation (full report)
Abstract and Summary
Primary teamwork competencies (Table)
Individual and Team-level Training Strategies (Table)