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Background. In situ simulation‐based team training of non‐technical skills is considered an important initiative for preventing adverse events caused by poor teamwork among healthcare personnel. This study aimed to assess the non‐technical skills of anaesthesia personnel before and after in situ simulation‐based team training in a clinical setting. Methods. The study was conducted from October 2020 to June 2021 using a quasiexperimental before and after design based on video‐recorded observations and ratings of anaesthesia teams' non‐technical skills during anaesthesia induction in the operating room before and shortly after in situ simulation‐based team training. Anaesthesia personnel were divided into 20 teams and video recorded during anaesthesia induction. The Anaesthetists' Non‐technical Skills (ANTS) system was used to score the teams' non‐technical skills. A paired‐sample t‐test was used to assess the impact of the intervention on the anaesthesia teams' scores on the various ANTS categories. Interrater agreement between the two ANTS raters was assessed using weighted kappa. Results. At the category level, the overall scores had a statistically significant increase in performance after simulation‐based team training (3.48 vs. 3.71; p < 0.001). Furthermore, scores of five of the 15 elements were significantly different. Interrater agreement revealed moderate agreement between the two raters (weighted kappa = 0.51, p value <0.001). Conclusion. The anaesthesia teams' increased non‐technical skills after simulation‐based team training may indicate the transfer of knowledge from training to clinical practice. The moderate agreement between the raters could be attributed to the subjective nature of the evaluation procedure. The ANTS was originally used as an individual assessment tool; however, this study has demonstrated its potential as a team assessment tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background Aim Study Design Results Conclusions Relevance to Clinical Practice Hospitals can improve how they learn from patient safety incidents. The Green Cross method, a proactive reporting and learning method, is one strategy to meet this challenge. In it, nurses play a key role. However, describing its impact on learning from the users' perspective is important.This study aimed to describe nurses' experiences of learning from patient safety incidents before and 3 months after implementing the Green Cross method in a postanaesthesia care unit.A qualitative study with an inductive descriptive design with focus group interviews was conducted before and 3 months after implementing the Green Cross method to assess its impact. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. The study was conducted in a postanaesthesia care unit in a Norwegian hospital trust.Before implementing the Green Cross method, participants indicated limited openness and learning, including the subcategories ‘Lack of openness hampers learning’, ‘Adverse events were taken seriously’ and ‘Insufficient visible improvements’. After implementing the Green Cross method, participants indicated the emergence of a learning environment, including the subcategories ‘Transparency increases learning’, ‘Increased patient safety awareness’ and ‘Committed to quality improvements’.Implementing the Green Cross method in a postanaesthesia care unit positively impacted openness and nurses' patient safety awareness, which is crucial for learning and improving quality.The Green Cross method could be useful for organizational learning and facilitating learning from patient safety incidents through transparency, discussion and involvement of nursing staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aims: To describe nursing students' experiences of a TeamSTEPPS® longitudinal team training program and the application of teamwork skills in clinical practice. Design: A descriptive qualitative design. Methods: Overall, 22 nursing students participated in six online focus group interviews after attending a TeamSTEPPS® team training program from their first semester. The data were audio‐recorded, transcribed and analysed using inductive content analysis and reported following the COREQ guidelines. The focus group interviews took place in the students' fifth's semester. Results: The main category "Learning teamwork is not an event; it's a journey" emerged from 3 generic categories and 12 subcategories. The participants reported that grasping the relevance of team training and the use of teamwork skills takes time. Utilizing these skills improved their awareness of being a team member and facilitated learning. Conclusion: Team training raised the participants' awareness of teamwork as an essential component of being a professional nurse. Additionally, understanding the complexity of teamwork takes time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Improving teamwork competencies among health care professionals is important for patient safety. Few previous studies have investigated whether a teamwork intervention has an impact on patients' perceptions of quality of care. Objective: To investigate patients' perceptions of quality of care before and after the implementation of a team training program in a surgical ward. Methods: A quasi-experimental pre- and posttest design was used. The TeamSTEPPS® team training program was implemented in a surgical ward. Three groups of consecutively sampled patients responded to the Quality from the Patient's Perspective (QPP) questionnaire including four dimensions with 25 items. In addition to the QPP, six items were developed for this study. In total, 223 patients responded to the questionnaire. The mean age was 59.6 years, and there were 128 males and 94 females. Results: The physical-technical condition dimension and four items showed significantly higher scores after six months of intervention. The majority of the patients scored quality of care in the four dimensions as very high at all three time points. Younger patients reported the lowest care quality. Conclusion: The results in this study indicate that the teamwork intervention had a minimal impact on the patients' perceptions of quality of care, with only significant differences between baseline and six months of intervention in one dimension and three items. At each data collection time point, the numbers of patients who perceived quality of care as modest decreased slightly. Younger patients were more likely to perceive care quality as modest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The delivery of effective and safe healthcare to patients is highly dependent on careful collaboration between healthcare professionals. Although teamwork is an important component for patient safety, effective teamwork is not always carried out in hospital wards, leading to negative consequences for the patients. Teamwork measurements can be used to evaluate and provide feedback to healthcare professionals to support team performance and to identify areas for improvement. The TeamSTEPPS® Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) evaluates Team Structure and four core competences of teamwork (Leadership, Situation Monitoring, Mutual Support, and Communication) among healthcare professionals in various healthcare settings. The questionnaire was judged to be relevant in a Swedish healthcare context and was translated into Swedish. This study aimed to test the reliability and construct validity of the Swedish version of the T-TPQ. Methods: A total of 450 (of 1176) frontline healthcare professionals working at four hospitals responded to the questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the factor structure. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure internal consistency. Results: The hypothesized five-factor model of the five dimensions showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indexes. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total T-TPQ was 0.94, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the dimensions ranged from 0.79 to 0.92. The intercorrelation coefficients ranged from 0.27 to 0.74. Conclusion: The Swedish version of the T-TPQ showed acceptable reliability and validity for measuring healthcare professionals' individual perceptions of teamwork at the group level. Due to the low response rate, further studies are required to test the validity of the Swedish T-TPQ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives Teamwork and interprofessional team training are fundamental to ensuring the continuity of care and high-quality outcomes for patients in a complex clinical environment. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) is an evidence-based team training programme intended to facilitate healthcare professionals’ teamwork skills. The aim of this study is to describe healthcare professionals’ experiences with teamwork in a surgical ward before and during the implementation of a longitudinal interprofessional team training programme. Design A qualitative descriptive study based on follow-up focus group interviews. Setting A combined gastrointestinal surgery and urology ward at a hospital division in a Norwegian hospital trust. Participants A convenience sample of 11 healthcare professionals divided into three professionally based focus groups comprising physicians (n=4), registered nurses (n=4) and certified nursing assistants (n=3). Interventions The Team STEPPS programme was implemented in the surgical ward from May 2016 to June 2017. The team training programme included the three phases: (1) assessment and planning, (2) training and implementation and (3) sustainment. results Before implementing the team training programme, healthcare professionals were essentially satisfied with the teamwork skills within the ward. During the implementation of the programme, they experienced that team training led to greater awareness and knowledge of their common teamwork skills. Improved teamwork skills were described in relation to a more systematic interprofessional information exchange, consciousness of leadership-balancing activities and resources, the use of situational monitoring tools and a shared understanding of accountability and transparency. Conclusions This study suggests that the team training programme provides healthcare professionals with a set of tools and terminology that promotes a common understanding of teamwork, hence affecting behaviour and communication in their daily clinical practice at the surgical ward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Healthcare professionals' attitudes play a significant role in influencing team behavior, and thereby affect the quality and safety of patient care. Culturally adapted and validated questionnaires may contribute valuable knowledge of professionals' attitudes toward teamwork. The aim of the study was to translate and cross-validate the TeamSTEPPS Teamwork Attitude Questionnaire (T-TAQ) into Norwegian, and to test the questionnaire for psychometric properties among Norwegian healthcare professionals. The T-TAQ, measuring five dimensions of attitude towards teamwork, was translated according to a model of back translation. Healthcare professionals (N = 247) from various hospital settings responded. A Pearson correlation coefficient, confirmatory factor analysis (CFA), test–retest reliability, Cronbach's alpha, and McDonald's omega were conducted. The inter-correlation test of the T-TAQ dimensions ranged from 0.16 to 0.54. The CFA showed a Root Mean Square Error of Approximation of (RMSEA) = 0.061. Test-retest showed Intraclass Correlation Coefficient scores from 0.73 to 0.86, with Cronbach's alpha and McDonald's omega demonstrating values from 0.53 to 0.76 (alpha) and 0.57 to 0.76 (omega) on the five dimensions. The Norwegian version of T-TAQ revealed potential concerning the psychometric property for measuring healthcare professionals' attitudes toward teamwork in hospital settings. Further testing with a sample that is more proportionally composed in terms of an interprofessional mix is therefore proposed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite a growing awareness of the importance of interprofessional teamwork in relation to patient safety, many hospital units lack effective teamwork. The aim of this study was to explore if an interprofessional teamwork intervention in a surgical ward changed the healthcare personnel’s perceptions of patient safety culture, perceptions of teamwork, and attitudes toward teamwork over 12 months. Healthcare personnel from surgical wards at two hospitals participated in a controlled quasi-experimental study. The intervention consisted of six hours of TeamSTEPPS team training and 12 months for the implementation of teamwork tools and strategies. The data collection was conducted among the healthcare personnel in the intervention group and the control group at baseline and at the end of the 12 month study period. The results within the intervention group showed that there were significantly improved scores in three of 12 patient safety culture dimensions and in three of five perceptions of teamwork dimensions after 12 months. When comparing between groups, significant differences were found in three patient safety culture measures in favor of the intervention group. The results of the study suggest that the teamwork intervention had a positive impact on patient safety culture and teamwork in the surgical ward. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Teamwork is an integrated part of today's specialized and complex healthcare and essential to patient safety, and is considered as a core competency to improve twenty-first century healthcare. Teamwork measurements and evaluations show promising results to promote good team performance, and are recommended for identifying areas for improvement. The validated TeamSTEPPS® Teamwork Perception Questionnaire (T-TPQ) was found suitable for cross-cultural validation and testing in a Norwegian context. T-TPQ is a self-report survey that examines five dimensions of perception of teamwork within healthcare settings. The aim of the study was to translate and cross-validate the T-TPQ into Norwegian, and test the questionnaire for psychometric properties among healthcare personnel.Methods: The T-TPQ was translated and adapted to a Norwegian context according to a model of a back-translation process. A total of 247 healthcare personnel representing different professionals and hospital settings responded to the questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the factor structure. Cronbach's alpha was used to establish internal consistency, and an Intraclass Correlation Coefficient was used to assess the test - retest reliability.Result: A confirmatory factor analysis showed an acceptable fitting model (χ2 (df) 969.46 (546), p < 0.001, Root Mean Square Error of Approximation (RMSEA) = 0.056, Tucker-Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.88, Comparative fit index (CFI) = 0.89, which indicates that each set of the items that was supposed to accompany each teamwork dimension clearly represents that specific construct. The Cronbach's alpha demonstrated acceptable values on the five subscales (0.786-0.844), and test-retest showed a reliability parameter, with Intraclass Correlation Coefficient scores from 0.672 to 0.852.Conclusion: The Norwegian version of T-TPQ was considered to be acceptable regarding the validity and reliability for measuring Norwegian individual healthcare personnel's perception of group level teamwork within their unit. However, it needs to be further tested, preferably in a larger sample and in different clinical settings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective teamwork and sufficient communication are critical components essential to patient safety in today's specialized and complex healthcare services. Team training is important for an improved efficiency in inter-professional teamwork within hospitals, however the scientific rigor of studies must be strengthen and more research is required to compare studies across samples, settings and countries. The aims of the study are to translate and validate teamwork questionnaires and investigate healthcare personnel's perception of teamwork in hospitals (Part 1). Further to explore the impact of an inter-professional teamwork intervention in a surgical ward on structure, process and outcome (Part 2). Methods: To address the aims, a descriptive, and explorative design (Part 1), and a quasi-experimental interventional design will be applied (Part 2). The study will be carried out in five different hospitals (A-E) in three hospital trusts in Norway. Frontline healthcare personnel in Hospitals A and B, from both acute and non-acute departments, will be invited to respond to three Norwegian translated teamwork questionnaires (Part 1). An inter-professional teamwork intervention in line with the TeamSTEPPS recommend Model of Change will be implemented in a surgical ward at Hospital C. All physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses in the intervention ward and two control wards (Hospitals D and E) will be invited to to survey their perception of teamwork, team decision making, safety culture and attitude towards teamwork before intervention and after six and 12 months. Adult patients admitted to the intervention surgical unit will be invited to survey their perception of quality of care during their hospital stay before intervention and after six and 12 month. Moreover, anonymous patient registry data from local registers and data from patients' medical records will be collected (Part 2). Discussion: This study will help to understand the impact of an inter-professional teamwork intervention in a surgical ward and contribute to promote healthcare personnel's team competences with an opportunity to achieve changes in work processes and patient safety. Trial registration: Trial registration number (TRN) is ISRCTN13997367. The study was registered retrospectively with registration date 30.05.2017. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Effective teamwork has proven to be crucial for providing safe care. The performance of emergencies in general and cardiac arrest situations in particular, has been criticized for primarily focusing on the individual’s technical skills and too little on the teams’ performance of non-technical skills. The aim of the study was to explore intensive care nurses’ team performance in a simulation-based emergency situation by using expert raters’ assessments and nurses’ self-assessments in relation to different intensive care specialties. Methods: The study used an explorative design based on laboratory high-fidelity simulation. Fifty-three registered nurses, who were allocated into 11 teams representing two intensive care specialties, participated in a videotaped simulation-based cardiac arrest setting. The expert raters used the Ottawa Crisis Resource Management Global Rating Scale and the first part of the Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale to assess the teams’ performance. The registered nurses used the first part of the Mayo High Performance Teamwork Scale for their self-assessments, and the analyses used were Chi-square tests, Mann–Whitney U tests, Spearman’s rho and Intraclass Correlation Coefficient Type III. Results: The expert raters assessed the teams’ performance as either advanced novice or competent, with significant differences being found between the teams from different specialties. Significant differences were found between the expert raters’ assessments and the registered nurses’ self-assessments. Conclusions: Teams of registered nurses representing specialties with coronary patients exhibit a higher competence in non-technical skills compared to team performance regarding a simulated cardiac arrest. The use of expert raters’ assessments and registered nurses’ self-assessments are useful in raising awareness of team performance with regard to patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: To describe intensive care nurses' perceptions of simulation-based team training for building patient safety in intensive care. Background: Failures in team processes are found to be contributory factors to incidents in an intensive care environment. Simulation-based training is recommended as a method to make health-care personnel aware of the importance of team working and to improve their competencies. Design: The study uses a qualitative descriptive design. Methods: Individual qualitative interviews were conducted with 18 intensive care nurses from May to December 2009, all of which had attended a simulation-based team training programme. The interviews were analysed by qualitative content analysis. Results: One main category emerged to illuminate the intensive care nurse perception: 'training increases awareness of clinical practice and acknowledges the importance of structured work in teams''. Three generic categories were found: 'realistic training contributes to safe care'', 'reflection and openness motivates learning'' and 'finding a common understanding of team performance''. Conclusions: Simulation-based team training makes intensive care nurses more prepared to care for severely ill patients. Team training creates a common understanding of how to work in teams with regard to patient safety. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Unsafe medical care causes morbidity and mortality among the hospital patients. In a postanaesthesia care unit (PACU), increasing patient safety is a joint effort between different professions. The Green Cross (GC) method is a user-friendly incident reporting method that incorporates daily safety briefings to support healthcare professionals in their daily patient safety work. Thus, this study aimed to describe healthcare professionals' experiences with the GC method in a PACU setting 3 years after its implementation, including the period of the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic's three waves., Design: An inductive, descriptive qualitative study was conducted. The data were analysed using qualitative content analysis., Setting: The study was conducted at a PACU of a university hospital in South-Eastern Norway., Participants: Five semistructured focus group interviews were conducted in March and April 2022. The informants (n=23) were PACU nurses (n=18) and collaborative healthcare professionals (n=5) including physicians, nurses and a pharmacist., Results: The theme 'still active, but in need of revitalisation' was created, describing the healthcare professionals' experiences with the GC method, 3 years post implementation. The following five categories were found: 'continuing to facilitate open communication', 'expressing a desire for more interprofessional collaboration regarding improvements', 'increasing reluctance to report', 'downscaling due to the pandemic' and 'expressing a desire to share more of what went well'., Conclusions: This study offers information regarding the healthcare professionals' experiences with the GC method in a PACU setting; further, it deepens the understanding of the daily patient safety work using this incident reporting method., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Introduction: Medication administration errors (MAEs) have the potential for significant patient harm, and the frequency of MAEs in the ambulance services is not well known. Effective teamwork is paramount for providing safe and effective patient care, especially in a time-sensitive, high-risk environment such as the ambulance services. Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) is an evidence-based team training programme that, to our knowledge, has not been studied in the ambulance services previously. TeamSTEPPS is based on the five principles: team structure, communication, leadership, situation monitoring and mutual support. This study aims to advance the knowledge of the medication administration process in the ambulance services and study the impact of a team training programme on the frequency of MAEs, and the perception of teamwork, and patient safety culture., Methods and Analysis: This study uses a longitudinal multimethod design to evaluate medication administration and the implementation of the team training programme TeamSTEPPS in an ambulance service. A review of electronic patient journals 6 months prior to the intervention, and 12 months after the intervention will provide data on the frequency of MAEs. Focus group interviews and questionnaires will be carried out before and after the intervention to describe the perception of teamwork and patient safety culture among ambulance professionals. Observations, individual interviews and a review of guidelines will be conducted in the first and second quarters of 2022 to study the medication administration process in ambulance services., Ethics and Dissemination: The study protocol was reviewed by the Regional Committees for Medical and Health Research Ethics Central Norway and approved by the Hospital Trust data protection officer, and the head of the Prehospital Division at the Hospital Trust. The data material will be managed confidentially and stored according to regulations. The results will be disseminated through scientific papers, reports, conference presentations, popular press, and social media., Trial Registration Number: NCT05244928., Competing Interests: Competing interests: None declared., (© Author(s) (or their employer(s)) 2023. Re-use permitted under CC BY-NC. No commercial re-use. See rights and permissions. Published by BMJ.)

Purpose: The delivery of effective and safe healthcare to patients is highly dependent on careful collaboration between healthcare professionals. Although teamwork is an important component for patient safety, effective teamwork is not always carried out in hospital wards, leading to negative consequences for the patients. Teamwork measurements can be used to evaluate and provide feedback to healthcare professionals to support team performance and to identify areas for improvement. The TeamSTEPPS ® Teamwork Perceptions Questionnaire (T-TPQ) evaluates Team Structure and four core competences of teamwork (Leadership, Situation Monitoring, Mutual Support, and Communication) among healthcare professionals in various healthcare settings. The questionnaire was judged to be relevant in a Swedish healthcare context and was translated into Swedish. This study aimed to test the reliability and construct validity of the Swedish version of the T-TPQ., Methods: A total of 450 (of 1176) frontline healthcare professionals working at four hospitals responded to the questionnaire. A confirmatory factor analysis was carried out to test the factor structure. Cronbach's alpha was used to measure internal consistency., Results: The hypothesized five-factor model of the five dimensions showed acceptable goodness-of-fit indexes. Cronbach's alpha coefficient for the total T-TPQ was 0.94, and the Cronbach's alpha coefficients for the dimensions ranged from 0.79 to 0.92. The intercorrelation coefficients ranged from 0.27 to 0.74., Conclusion: The Swedish version of the T-TPQ showed acceptable reliability and validity for measuring healthcare professionals' individual perceptions of teamwork at the group level. Due to the low response rate, further studies are required to test the validity of the Swedish T-TPQ., Competing Interests: The authors report no conflicts of interest in this work., (© 2020 Hall-Lord et al.)

Aim: To explore Norwegian operating room nurses' perceptions of how team skills in the inter-professional operating room team influence perioperative nursing in relation to patient safety., Design: A qualitative, descriptive study based on interviews., Methods: Ten operating room nurses ( N  = 10) employed in four Norwegian hospitals were interviewed individually. A qualitative inductive content analysis was conducted. The study was reported adhering to the Consolidated Criteria for Reporting Qualitative Research Checklist., Results: Three generic categories, containing three subcategories each, were identified illuminate the operating room nurses' perceptions. The operating room team's team skills influence on (a) the quality of perioperative nursing, about task performance, result for the patient and learning; (b) the progress of perioperative nursing, by keeping focus on the task, being prepared and task distribution and (c) the operating room nurses' work environment in the operating room, including confidence, stress and energy use and irritation or job satisfaction., Competing Interests: All authors declare no conflict of interest., (© 2019 The Authors. Nursing Open published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)