Creating team care and data and procedure standardization interventions has the potential to increase situational awareness among caregivers, reducing safety risks to patients, according to a study published in BJM Quality and Safety.
Researchers conducted semi-structured focus groups with seven nurse-physician teams and analyzed convergent themes from the discussions.
Team-based care, availability of standardized data and standardized processes and procedures were all identified as having major influences on provider situational awareness. The focus groups also mentioned shared language for at-risk patient description, critical care experience and team timeouts to plan for at-risk patients were also important to situational awareness.
Situational awareness — understanding, integrating and predicting events based on observed data — has long been known to improve safety in other high-risk industries, according to the study.
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