{"id":38695,"date":"2013-09-09T09:00:29","date_gmt":"2013-09-09T13:00:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/?post_type=voices&p=38695"},"modified":"2013-09-09T11:01:06","modified_gmt":"2013-09-09T15:01:06","slug":"nontechnical-skills-matter-in-the-cardiac-operating-room","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/2013\/09\/09\/nontechnical-skills-matter-in-the-cardiac-operating-room\/","title":{"rendered":"Nontechnical Skills Matter in the Cardiac Operating Room"},"content":{"rendered":"

CardioExchange\u2019s Harlan Krumholz<\/b> interviews Joyce A. Wahr<\/b>, lead author of the AHA\u2019s new scientific statement<\/a> on the importance of human factors and teamwork in performing cardiac surgery.<\/i><\/p>\n

Krumholz:<\/i><\/b> <\/i>What are the most important insights from this scientific statement?<\/b><\/p>\n

Wahr:<\/i><\/b> First, we now have strong evidence that nontechnical skills (teamwork and communication) play a critical role in patients\u2019 surgical outcomes. Second, surgical teams can improve these skills and reduce human error with a few simple interventions. The statement reviews the data showing that team training and the use of briefings\/checklists can actually improve outcomes. Traditionally, medical and surgical training has focused on development of intellectual acumen and technical skills. We have only recently realized that complex medical environments, in which highly trained subspecialists interact with one another and use sophisticated technology (e.g., cardiac surgery), resemble those in other high-risk, complex industries. In aviation, nuclear power, and the military, the importance of teamwork training and nontechnical skills (such as communication, cooperation, coordination, and conflict resolution) has been emphasized for decades.<\/p>\n

Krumholz:<\/i><\/b> <\/i>Are the findings relevant outside the operating room?<\/b><\/p>\n

Wahr:<\/i><\/b> The findings are relevant to every healthcare team regardless of its makeup or location in the healthcare system. Although we focused on studies addressing the challenges of reducing human error and improving patient safety in the cardiac and other surgical operating rooms, the concepts in these studies are broadly applicable\u2014they have been studied in emergency departments, obstetrical units, medical intervention suites, and other healthcare settings.<\/p>\n

Krumholz: <\/i><\/b>What single change would have the biggest effect on patient safety?<\/b><\/p>\n

Wahr:<\/i><\/b> We would like to see all unit directors, department chairs, and hospital safety officers institute team training in their units. Excellent healthcare team-training tools exist\u2014they simply need to be used. We also would like to see every cardiac surgeon lead a briefing with his or her team before every operation. Data show that such briefings improve many aspects of teamwork, including team members\u2019 willingness to speak up. Briefings\/checklists, together with team training, are the two distinct interventions that have improved surgical patient outcomes in large studies.<\/p>\n

JOIN THE DISCUSSION<\/b><\/p>\n

What\u2019s your view about the potential for team training and presurgical team briefings to improve the safety of cardiac surgery?<\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Joyce A. Wahr discusses the importance of teamwork and communication in performing cardiac surgery, as described in a new AHA scientific statement.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":784,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[476,739,1965,1964],"class_list":["post-38695","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-vascular","tag-aha","tag-cardiac-surgery-2","tag-surgical-briefings","tag-teamwork"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/784"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=38695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/38695\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=38695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=38695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.nejm.org\/cardioexchange\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=38695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}