The Canadian Patient Safety Institute is now offering an exciting new program to enhance patient safety through improved teamwork and communication. TeamSTEPPS® is the acronym for Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety. It is a teamwork system originally developed jointly by the Department of Defense (DoD) and the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) to improve institutional collaboration and communication relating to patient safety. As part of its efforts to enhance a patient safety culture under the SHIFT to Safety platform, the Canadian Patient Safety Institute has adopted and adapted the program and is now making TeamSTEPPS Canada™ available to the Canadian healthcare field.
TeamSTEPPS® has been shown to improve safety and transform culture in healthcare through the promotion of teachable, learnable skills that lead to better teamwork, communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support within and among teams. These core skills lead to important team outcomes, such as enabling the team to adapt to changing situations, achieve compatible shared mental models among team members, and maintain a stronger orientation toward teamwork. The Canadian Patient Safety Institute has been working with Canadian and international partners to cultivate the growing network of TeamSTEPPS® early adopters, and to develop capacity across the country in support of better teamwork and communication for patient safety.
The TeamSTEPPS Canada™ program is delivered in a train-the-trainer model, where Master Trainers are certified to teach the program to others. The program is designed for providers, leaders and patients alike, from a variety of healthcare settings, including acute, primary, long-term and ambulatory care fields.
The Canadian Patient Safety Institute has partnered with the Health Quality Council of Alberta (HQCA), as a TeamSTEPPS Canada™ Regional Training Centre, to deliver the TeamSTEPPS Canada™ Master Trainer program. The Master Trainer program includes a comprehensive set of ready-to-use materials and a training curriculum to integrate teamwork principles into a variety of healthcare settings. The inaugural two-day TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer program will be offered in Calgary, May 8 and 9, 2018. The HQCA plans to deliver programs at various locations throughout Alberta quarterly. To register, visit www.hqca.ca
"TeamSTEPPS is a good conduit for standardization, sharing, and creating a common vision for safe care between all organizations," says Rhonda Pouliet, Lead, Collaborative Learning & Education, HQCA and a TeamSTEPPS Master Trainer. "The Health Quality Council of Alberta is pleased to collaborate with the Canadian Patient Safety Institute and come on board as a Regional Training Centre for the TeamSTEPPS Canada™ program. It is an exciting opportunity and we have people throughout the province chomping at the bit to get started on their TeamSTEPPS training!"
The Canadian Patient Safety Institute has also partnered with the Atlantic Health Quality and Patient Safety Council to offer a TeamSTEPPS Canada™ training session in Halifax, in April 2018.
The TeamSTEPPS Canada™ program consists of 12 modules. The TeamSTEPPS Essentials course is a brief (1-2 hours) introduction to the TeamSTEPPS framework, and the tools and strategies contained in the TeamSTEPPS Pocket Guide. The TeamSTEPPS Fundamentals course teaches the core teamwork skills in seven modules, which are represented in the elements of the TeamSTEPPS Framework Triangle model. Completion of the Fundamentals course is prerequisite to the Master Trainer course (modules 8-12). The Master Trainer course focuses on topics related to the implementation and sustainment of TeamSTEPPS. Content for the 12 modules focus on these topics:
Module 1: Introduction—provides an overview of Master Training, TeamSTEPPS, and the science of team performance.
Module 2: Team Structure—defines a team and its members, including patients and their families, and describes a multi-team system, which is important in planning a TeamSTEPPS implementation.
Module 3: Communication—provides tools and strategies for communicating effectively through standardized information exchange strategies such as SBAR, check-back, call-out, and handoff.
Module 4: Leading Teams—identifies the activities conducted to effectively lead teams and the tools that support these activities, such as briefs, huddles, and debriefs.
Module 5: Situation Monitoring—describes the importance of team members gaining or maintaining an accurate awareness or understanding of the situation in which the team is functioning, and outcomes of situation monitoring, including a shared mental model among team members.
Module 6: Mutual Support— describes approaches for providing mutual support, or "backup behavior," that allows teams to become self-correcting, distribute workload effectively, provide effective feedback, and manage conflict.
Module 7: Summary: Pulling It All Together— provides an opportunity for participants to review and apply the TeamSTEPPS tools and strategies learned through the course.
Module 8: Change Management—provides information about organizational change through Kotter's Eight Steps of Change.
Module 9: Coaching—describes coaching, how to coach, and the role of coaching in implementing TeamSTEPPS.
Module 10: Measurement—provides information about evaluating the success of your TeamSTEPPS implementation, including available assessment tools and resources.
Module 11: Implementation Workshop—serves as a capstone to the course by allowing you and your team members to think through your implementation plans and strategies.
Module 12: Teachback opportunity—provides participants an opportunity to plan and teach a module from the Fundamentals course.
For more information on TeamSTEPPS Canada™, visit www.teamstepps-canada.ca
