ENHANCING TEAMWORK AND IMPROVING COMMUNICATION ON SURGICAL UNITS USING TEAMSTEPPS
Creators: name: Soegeng, Kristen
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2019

description: Teamwork and communication are important factors in reducing medical errors and improving job satisfaction (Chachula, Myrick, &amp; Yonge, 2015; Miller, Kim, Silverman, &amp; Bauer, 2018; World Health Organization [WHO], 2011). The Agency of Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) collaborated to create Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS), an evidence-based program to improve communication and collaboration among providers (AHRQ, 2013). The purpose of this quality improvement (QI) project was to improve (a) teamwork, (b) communication, and (c) job satisfaction among surgical staff through the implementation of TeamSTEPPS in a 162-bed acute care community hospital in an urban area of Southern California. The settings for the QI project were three surgical units: (a) Same Day Surgery, (b) the Operating Room, and (c) Post Anesthesia Care Unit. The QI team implemented a four-hour TeamSTEPPS training session consisting of (a) PowerPoint lecture, (b) group activities, and (c) role-playing. Two surveys, the Brief TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) and the Healthcare Environment Survey Job Satisfaction Subscale (JSS), were administered before the training and one month after. Responses on individual survey items were dichotomized to two variables with agree and strongly agree being one variable versus all other responses. A percent change from baseline response to follow-up response was calculated to examine the influence of iv TeamSTEPPS training on job satisfaction and perceptions of teamwork and communication. Seventeen participants completed the pre- and post-surveys. The three items on the JSS that demonstrated the most improvement were (a) satisfaction with teamwork (36.4% pre, 58.8% post, increased 61% from baseline); (b) satisfaction with organizational reward (13.6% pre, 29.4% post, increased 116% from baseline); and (c) satisfaction with physician respect (28.6% pre, 52.9% post, increased 85% from baseline). The three items on the Brief Team T-TPQ that demonstrated marked improvements were (a) the supervisor taking time to create a plan of care with staff (45.5% pre, 68.8% post, increased 51.2% from baseline); (b) the supervisor considers staff input about patient care (40.9% pre, 62.5% post, increased 52.8% from baseline); and (c) staff assist colleagues during high workloads (59.1% pre, 94.1% post, increased 59.2% from baseline). One item on the JSS showed a marked decrease, satisfaction with opportunities for growth and development (40.9% pre, 29.4% post, a 28.1% decrease from baseline). The findings generally demonstrated marked improvements in teamwork, communication, and job satisfaction among surgical staff at the facility because of TeamSTEPPS implementation. However, the item from the JSS that demonstrated a large decrement warrants attention from hospital administrators and clinical directors. This QI project adds to the literature by confirming the results found by other researchers and provides evidence of the positive effects and challenges to implementing TeamSTEPPS in community-based, acute settings.