Effective Teamwork and Communication to Enhance Patient Safety

The Canadian Patient Safety Institute’s (CPSI) mission is “to provide national leadership in building and advancing a safer Canadian healthcare system.”  A strategic priority to realize this mission is the effective integration of tools and resources into practice to ensure patient safety. A key strategy to accomplish this priority is the development of a Canadian Framework for Teamwork and Communication.

Effective teamwork and communication are critical for ensuring high reliability and the safe delivery of health care1,2. Healthcare providers work in complex, demanding and dynamic environments. Effective teamwork and communication techniques can improve quality and safety, decrease patient harm, promote cross professional collaboration and the development of common goals, decrease workload issues and improve staff and patient satisfaction3,4.

High performing teams share a common vision, posses a strong sense of trust and confidence, optimize collaboration, communication and coordination and understand one another’s professional roles and responsibilities5.

Communication is at the core of healthcare. Because communication can be driven by circumstance or dependent on individual personalities, standardized tools to facilitate effective communication and behaviors represent cogent strategies to support patient safety initiatives2.  Building effective teams and improving communication through standardized tools will address the goal of moving effective teamwork forward in Canada3 and contribute to a culture of patient safety.

  1. Baker, D. (2007).  TeamSTEPPS: Team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient safety. Retrieved May 22, 2009 from https://mihealthandsafety.medstat.com/patientsafety2007/7.pdf
  2. Leonard, M., Graham, S., & Bonacum, D. (2004). The human factor: the critical importance of effective teamwork and communication in providing safe care. Quality and Safety in Health Care, 13, i85-i90. 
  3.  Oandasan, I., Baker, R., Barker, K., Bosco, C., D’Amour, D., Jones, L., Kimpton, S., Lemieux-Charles, L., Nasmith, L., San Martin Rodriguez, L., Tepper, J. & Way, D. (2006). Teamwork in healthcare: promoting effective teamwork in healthcare in Canada. Ottawa: Canadian Health Services Research Foundation.
  4. Frankel, M., Leonard, M. & Denham, C. (2006). Fair and just culture, team behaviour, and leadership engagement: the tools to achieve high reliability. Health Services Research, 41(4), 1690-1708. 
  5. Baker, D., Day, R. & Salas, E. (2006). Teamwork as an essential component of high-reliability organizations. Health Services Research, 41(4).
 

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