1) Determine readiness to engage in teamwork efforts.

AHRQ Patient Safety Primer on Teamwork

AHRQ TeamSTEPPS® Readiness Assessment Tools.

Answering these questions can help an institution understand its level of readiness to initiate the TeamSTEPPS® program. Staff may find it helpful to have a colleague review responses or to answer the questions with a larger group (e.g., senior leaders).

2) Recruit and train teamwork facilitators.

Refer to work done in Getting Started domain.

3) Train team members.

AHRQ TeamSTEPPS® home page

AHRQ Teamwork resources

AHRQ CUSP Teamwork and Communication video

AHRQ CUSP Peer-to-Peer Counseling video

AHRQ Team Formation Video - Long Term Care

Dimension 1. Teamwork

1. Patient Safety Primer: Teamwork Training

   Providing safe health care depends on highly trained individuals with disparate roles and responsibilities acting together in the best interests of the patient. The AHRQ Patient Safety Network explains this topic further and provides links for more information on what is new in teamwork training.

    

2. Patient Safety Through Teamwork and Communication Toolkit

   This toolkit is featured on AHRQ's Health Care Innovations Exchange website. It consists of an education guide and communication tools. The education guide provides a plan for the education and integration of communication and teamwork factors into clinical practice. The communication tools section provides a description for each of the following tools along with provisions for implementation:

   - Multidisciplinary Rounding

   - Huddles-

   - Rapid Response and Escalation

   - Structured Communication

    

3. TeamSTEPPS® — "Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety"

   Developed jointly by the Department of Defense (DoD) and AHRQ, TeamSTEPPS® is a resource for training health care providers in better teamwork practices. The training package capitalizes on DoD's years of experience in medical and nonmedical team performance and AHRQ's extensive research in the fields of patient safety and health care quality. Following extensive field testing in the Military Health System (MHS) and several civilian organizations, a multimedia TeamSTEPPS toolkit is now available in the public domain to civilian health care facilities and medical practices. (click here for Long Term Care Version)

    

4. Improving Hospital Patient Safety Through Teamwork: The Use of TeamSTEPPS In Critical Access Hospitals [PDF]           

5. TeamSTEPPS® — Rapid Response Systems (RRS) Training Module

   This evidence-based module will provide insight into the core concepts of teamwork as they are applied to the rapid response system (RRS). The module contains an instructor guide in electronic form and training slides that include a high-quality video vignette of teamwork as it relates to RRS. This product comes as a CD-ROM with printable files (Word®, PDF, and PowerPoint®). Order information is available on the website.

4) Assess gaps in teamwork.

"What Went Right: Lessons Learned from Flight 1549" article

TeamSTEPPS® Readiness Assessment Tool

TeamStepps® simulation training information

AHRQ PSNet primer on disruptive behavior

CUSP Team check-up tool

"Disruptive Physician Behavior," by Owen MacDonald, Group Publisher, Quantia MD, May 15, 2011

5) Establish site-specific teamwork communication work plans.

TeamSTEPPS® 10 steps of action planning

6) Reassess gaps to ensure training has successfully addressed them.

AHRQ TeamSTEPPS® Readiness Assessment Tool

7) Align hiring, training, and performance standards with teamwork goals.

Job Shadowing tool: Job shadowing is recommended in units that are not doing well according to the CUSP team check-up tool.