Document Type

Journal Article

Publication Title

Australasian Emergency Care

Publisher

Elsevier

School

School of Nursing and Midwifery

RAS ID

35231

Funders

Edith Cowan University - Open Access Support Scheme 2020

This work was supported by a Hollywood Private Hospital Research Foundation grant, Western Australia (RF119)

Comments

Saunders, R., Wood, E., Coleman, A., Gullick, K., Graham, R., & Seaman, K. (2021). Emergencies within hospital wards: An observational study of the non-technical skills of medical emergency teams. Australasian Emergency Care, 24(2), 89-95. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.003

Abstract

Background

Medical emergency teams are essential in responding to acute deterioration of patients in hospitals, requiring both clinical and non-technical skills. This study aims to assess the non-technical skills of medical emergency teams during hospital ward emergencies and explore team members perceptions and experiences of the use non-technical skills during medical emergencies.

Methods

A multi-methods study was conducted in two phases. During phase one observation and assessment of non-technical skills used in medical emergencies using the Team Emergency Assessment Measure (TEAM™) was conducted; and in the phase two in-depth interviews were undertaken with medical emergency team members.

Results

Based on 20 observations, mean TEAM™ ratings for non-technical skill domains were: ‘leadership’ 5.0 out of 8 (±2.0); ‘teamwork’ 21.6 out of 28 (±3.6); and ‘task management’ 6.5 out of 8 (±1.4). The mean ‘global’ score was 7.5 out of 10 (±1.5). The qualitative findings identified three areas, ‘individual’, ‘team’ and ‘other’ contributing factors, which impacted upon the non-technical skills of medical emergency teams.

Conclusion

Non-technical skills of hospital medical emergency teams differ, and the impact of the skill mix on resuscitation outcomes was recognised by team members. These findings emphasize the importance non-technical skills in resuscitation training and well-developed processes for medical emergency teams.

DOI

10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.003

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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Link to publisher version (DOI)

10.1016/j.auec.2020.07.003