Team Management Training Using Crisis Resource Management Results in Perceived Benefits by Healthcare Workers

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abstract

Background: Systems failures and ineffective teamwork can lead to serious errors in practice. Crisis Resource Management (CRM) teaches leadership, effective communication skills, and improved team performance. The impact of CRM taught in a simulation laboratory was evaluated.

Methods: A mail survey was used to examine perceived benefits and application of CRM principles when encountering practice and everyday life crisis situations. All participants completing the course since its inception who could be located received the survey.

Results: Fifty-three of 149 participants (35%) responded to the survey. Eighty-three percent had managed a crisis since the course and 68% indicated better practice performance during emergencies. Thirty-eight percent applied CRM to personal crisis experiences.

Conclusions: Findings support that CRM training leads to perceived improvements in performance during critical events.

The Institute of Medicine has estimated that between 44,000 and 98,000 Americans die annually as result of medical errors (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 1999). Patient safety has become such a national priority that numerous government, accreditation, and professional agencies and organizations such as the American Nurses Association, the Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research, the Joint Commission for Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations, the American Society of Anesthesiologists, and the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation have enacted standards and regulations to ensure that healthcare professionals and institutions take appropriate actions for safe patient care practices. Moreover, advocacy groups representing industry, healthcare insurers, and consumers have formed coalitions to set patient safety expectations within healthcare organizations (Premier, 2007).

In a report from the Institute of Medicine, medical mishaps are most commonly attributed to systems, processes, and condition failures that lead to unfortunate outcomes for patients (Kohn et al., 1999). The Institute of Medicine recommends several approaches that could potentially reduce medical errors by 50% within 5 years. One recommendation in particular emphasizes the need for performance standards that involve both modifications in systems processes and better preparation of healthcare professionals to reduce the potential for errors. Although there are many root causes for errors in health care, work environments and factors related to healthcare professionals (e.g., fatigue, stress, and poor communication) are associated with the greatest number of potentially serious mistakes, which often occur during high-stress and crisis events.

CRISIS RESOURCE MANAGEMENT

Crisis Resource Management (CRM) has been extrapolated from experiences...