Communications research in aviation is widely regarded by many in the healthcare community as the 'gold standard' that should be emulated. Yet healthcare and aviation differ in many ways, as do the vital communications shared among members of clinical teams. Aviation team communication should, then, be understood in terms of what lessons will benefit those who work in healthcare. This book reports on recent field research to address what is known, and what needs to be learned, about team communication among operators.

Practical, proven techniques for improving team performance in the health care world Teams and collaboration have become an expectation in most healthcare facilities and environments. It is accepted that high performance, patient focused teams are critical to quality patient care. However, there is often a wide gap between traditional practices and the new behaviours and practices required for teamwork and collaboration. Improving Health Care Team Performance goes beyond theory to provide the knowledge, tools, and techniques required to develop a single team, or to develop an organization wide team based culture, from which exceptional patient care emerges. Most uniquely it emphasizes that effective teamwork goes far beyond team dynamics and provides detailed description of additional requirements, such as shared learning and change compatibility, and how to fulfill them. A practical handbook for healthcare leaders striving to ensure a superior patient experience and high quality of care, Improving Healthcare Team Performance not only provides specifics on how to develop high functioning teams, whether multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or departmental but also offers those dealing with the common healthcare leadership challenges of low morale, poor communication, interpersonal conflict, and lack of knowledge sharing the tools to take immediate action to improve performance. Providing a proven approach to addressing and preventing everyday issues impacting patient care, Improving Health Care Team Performance contains everything needed to identify areas of greatest need within a team or department, take targeted action to address key gaps, and measure progress towards positive change. Presents a clear depiction of what constitutes collaboration and a high-performing patient focused team. This includes the skills and practices required to improve team performance and ultimately the quality of patient care, how to develop new attitudes and behaviours within the team, as well as the leadership requirements for success in a patient focused, team based culture. Provides a set of development tools accessible online to help the reader quickly and easily apply the knowledge gleaned. Offers targeted solutions including tips/recommendations, a step-by-step approach for affecting necessary change at every level of the organization, and skills and team development activities. Designed for leaders working in any healthcare environment, Improving Health Care Team Performance is a practical approach to improving team performance and the quality of patient care.

v. 1. Research findings -- v. 2. Concepts and methodology -- v. 3. Implementation issues -- v. 4. Programs, tools and products.

Communications research in aviation is widely regarded by many in the healthcare community as the 'gold standard' to emulate. Yet healthcare and aviation differ in many ways, as do the vital communications shared among members of clinical teams. Aviation team communication should, then, be understood in terms of what lessons will benefit those who work in healthcare. In Improving Healthcare Team Communication, renowned experts provide insights from 'sharp end' operator research in high-hazard sectors that shed light on the performance of cognitive tasks including resource availability assessment, allocation, anticipation, prediction, trade-off decisions, speculation and negotiation. The book reports on recent field research to address what is known, and what needs to be learned, about team communication among operators. Students, clinicians and healthcare managers can find answers in it to the questions they face daily. How can healthcare information be better shared? What can we expect from its improvement, and how do we get there? Lessons learned from team communication research and experience in aviation and healthcare will point the way to improved patient safety.

A proven prescription for effective communication that will empower health professionals to deliver the highest quality care―from the Academy of Communication in Healthcare Research shows that nothing impacts patient experiences more than the quality of communication. While beneficial, the latest in cutting-edge technology and techniques aren’t enough to ensure the best possible care for patients. The key to better healthcare outcomes is communication. Over the past four decades, the Academy of Communication in Healthcare has worked tirelessly with health systems, teaching communication skills that put relationships—between patients and providers, as well as among providers—at the center of care. Now, for the first time, ACH’s proven and effective methodology is detailed in this invaluable step-by-step guide. You’ll learn communication skills that will enable you to: * Provide more accurate diagnoses and effective treatments—and improve patient outcomes * Boost patient adherence and lower hospital readmission rates * Make fewer errors and reduce malpractice risks * Increase patient satisfaction and build teamwork among providers * Further develop your communication skill set—and help others do the same In this practical—and potentially life-saving—volume, you’ll discover special sections on teamwork, coaching, shared decision-making, feedback, conflict engagement, diversity, and communicating through hierarchy. The book also provides institutional initiatives to help you implement change in your organization and outlines a field-tested blueprint for healthier communication across the entire industry. To create effective communication and meaningful connections in healthcare, trust ACH. Communication is literally its middle name.

The Institute of Medicine study Crossing the Quality Chasm (2001) recommended that an interdisciplinary summit be held to further reform of health professions education in order to enhance quality and patient safety. Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality is the follow up to that summit, held in June 2002, where 150 participants across disciplines and occupations developed ideas about how to integrate a core set of competencies into health professions education. These core competencies include patient-centered care, interdisciplinary teams, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, and informatics. This book recommends a mix of approaches to health education improvement, including those related to oversight processes, the training environment, research, public reporting, and leadership. Educators, administrators, and health professionals can use this book to help achieve an approach to education that better prepares clinicians to meet both the needs of patients and the requirements of a changing health care system.

Building on the revolutionary Institute of Medicine reports To Err is Human and Crossing the Quality Chasm, Keeping Patients Safe lays out guidelines for improving patient safety by changing nurses' working conditions and demands. Licensed nurses and unlicensed nursing assistants are critical participants in our national effort to protect patients from health care errors. The nature of the activities nurses typically perform â€" monitoring patients, educating home caretakers, performing treatments, and rescuing patients who are in crisis â€" provides an indispensable resource in detecting and remedying error-producing defects in the U.S. health care system. During the past two decades, substantial changes have been made in the organization and delivery of health care â€" and consequently in the job description and work environment of nurses. As patients are increasingly cared for as outpatients, nurses in hospitals and nursing homes deal with greater severity of illness. Problems in management practices, employee deployment, work and workspace design, and the basic safety culture of health care organizations place patients at further risk. This newest edition in the groundbreaking Institute of Medicine Quality Chasm series discusses the key aspects of the work environment for nurses and reviews the potential improvements in working conditions that are likely to have an impact on patient safety.

Confronted with worldwide evidence of substantial public health harm due to inadequate patient safety, the World Health Assembly (WHA) in 2002 adopted a resolution (WHA55.18) urging countries to strengthen the safety of health care and monitoring systems. The resolution also requested that WHO take a lead in setting global norms and standards and supporting country efforts in preparing patient safety policies and practices. In May 2004, the WHA approved the creation of an international alliance to improve patient safety globally; WHO Patient Safety was launched the following October. For the first time, heads of agencies, policy-makers and patient groups from around the world came together to advance attainment of the goal of "First, do no harm" and to reduce the adverse consequences of unsafe health care. The purpose of WHO Patient Safety is to facilitate patient safety policy and practice. It is concentrating its actions on focused safety campaigns called Global Patient Safety Challenges, coordinating Patients for Patient Safety, developing a standard taxonomy, designing tools for research policy and assessment, identifying solutions for patient safety, and developing reporting and learning initiatives aimed at producing 'best practice' guidelines. Together these efforts could save millions of lives by improving basic health care and halting the diversion of resources from other productive uses. The Global Patient Safety Challenge, brings together the expertise of specialists to improve the safety of care. The area chosen for the first Challenge in 2005-2006, was infection associated with health care. This campaign established simple, clear standards for hand hygiene, an educational campaign and WHO's first Guidelines on Hand Hygiene in Health Care. The problem area selected for the second Global Patient Safety Challenge, in 2007-2008, was the safety of surgical care. Preparation of these Guidelines for Safe Surgery followed the steps recommended by WHO. The groundwork for the project began in autumn 2006 and included an international consultation meeting held in January 2007 attended by experts from around the world. Following this meeting, expert working groups were created to systematically review the available scientific evidence, to write the guidelines document and to facilitate discussion among the working group members in order to formulate the recommendations. A steering group consisting of the Programme Lead, project team members and the chairs of the four working groups, signed off on the content and recommendations in the guidelines document. Nearly 100 international experts contributed to the document (see end). The guidelines were pilot tested in each of the six WHO regions--an essential part of the Challenge--to obtain local information on the resources required to comply with the recommendations and information on the feasibility, validity, reliability and cost-effectiveness of the interventions.

This volume, developed by the Observatory together with OECD, provides an overall conceptual framework for understanding and applying strategies aimed at improving quality of care. Crucially, it summarizes available evidence on different quality strategies and provides recommendations for their implementation. This book is intended to help policy-makers to understand concepts of quality and to support them to evaluate single strategies and combinations of strategies.

A complete introductory guide to the principles and clinical application of teamwork in health care Understanding Teamwork in Health Care emphasizes the essential competencies necessary to implement teamwork in health care in a complex hospital or primary care setting. Unlike similar books on the subject which are theoretical or policy-oriented, this text offers practical, real-world coverage. Valuable for health care professionals seeking a thorough explanation of teamwork and for trainers working in hospitals or primary care settings; could also be used as a textbook. Mini-cases throughout the text help readers appreciate real-world application of principles Written to a level suited for the non-specialist