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Dr. Severson is Project Manager and Assistant Professor of Health Services Research, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Center for Science of Health Care Delivery, Dr. Maxson is Nurse Manager and Assistant Professor of Nursing, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, Dr. Wrobleski is Nursing Education Specialist and Assistant Professor of Nursing, Mayo Clinic College of Medicine, and Dr. Dozois is Staff Physician, Colon and Rectal Surgery, and Professor of Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota.
This study was financially supported by the Department of Colon and Rectal Surgery, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minnesota. The sponsor had no role in the study design; collection, analysis, and interpretation of data; writing the report; and the decision to submit the report for publication. The authors thank Jennifer Sakellariou for typing the transcripts of the video debriefing sessions and Mary Jo Templeton for her technical assistance.
The authors have disclosed no potential conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise.
Ineffective communication is one of the most common factors that contributes to health care mistakes (Griswold et al., 2012; Institute of Medicine [IOM], 2000). Research has shown that more people die from medical errors than from motor vehicle accidents, breast cancer, or AIDS (Griswold et al., 2012; IOM, 2000). Dunn et al. (2007) found that communication failure is one of the most common contributing factors in 65% of sentinel events (health care mistakes that result in serious injury or death to the patient). The IOM's report (2000), To Err Is Human: Building a Safer Health Care System , recommended an interprofessional team approach to provide safe patient care. In addition, another IOM report (2001), Crossing the Quality Chasm: A New Health System for the 21st Century , focused on developing effective team-based care approaches to enhance patient safety and error-proof systems of care delivery. Although patients receive safer and better quality care when staff work together as a team, communicate effectively, and understand each person's role and responsibility, a growing number of health care organizations recognize the importance of offering opportunities to practice the skills needed to promote effective teamwork and communication, which ultimately improves patient safety and reduces medical errors (Dunn et al., 2007; Griswold et al., 2012; IOM, 2000; Leonard, Graham, & Bonacum, 2004).
In many organizations, people work as part...