There are many essential elements to successful communication for an effective resuscitation
team.
It's vital that each professional involved knows what their role is, how to function
within their role, and how to communicate that role effectively.
We all know that poor communication creates confusion.
This can result in procedures being done incorrectly, medication errors, and disagreements amongst
team leaders.
All of this miscommunication can drastically reduce a patient’s chance of survival.
Therefore, let's practice effective communication techniques in order to provide the best care
possible.
So let’s review some of the most important aspects of that effective communication.
First, that each team member must have a clear role and responsibility.
Every individual on the resuscitation team needs to understand their specific tasks and
responsibilities.
Resuscitation team members will have different skill levels depending on their training and
expertise.
So it's important that the team leader is aware of the skill proficiencies of individual
team members so responsibilities can be properly assigned.
Now each individual should also be familiar with the roles of their fellow team members.
When roles are miscommunicated or unclear, the whole team's performance will suffer.
Second, each team member needs to know their limitations.
This knowledge allows the team leader to evaluate the available resources and to call for assistance
as needed.
Remember, it’s not just a sign of incompetence or weakness to ask for help if a team member
is limited in a specific function or skill.
It’s certainly better to be honest and get appropriate help rather than do something
that could negatively impact the whole resuscitation priority of the patient.
Third, effective communication includes constructive interventions.
There is the possibility that a team leader may need to intervene if a specific action
isn’t being performed appropriately.
And if it is necessary to take over for a person’s role or to reassign a person to
a different role, it should be handled professionally, tactfully, efficiently.
Team leaders should avoid confrontation with team members that will have negative consequences
on the patient outcome.
For example, if there was a situation where the IV team member had attempted a vascular
access twice and wasn't successful, the team leader may assign another member to secure
that IV or IO.
The team leader needs to avoid statements like, and I'm being pretty fictitious here,
“You didn’t get the IV yet?
What’s wrong with you?”, “just move out of the way, I’ll take care of it myself!!”
Statements like this will only cause frustration and greatly reduce the effectiveness of the
whole team approach.
Now for the fourth point regarding effective communication.
We’re going to talk about knowledge sharing.
When efforts in resuscitation are ineffective, it’s important to go back to the “basics”
and talk as a team.
One example may sound something like this.
The leader states, “Okay, so the patient is still in Vfib after 3 shocks and delivery
of epinephrine and amiodarone.
We’ve performed all the treatments correctly up to this point, and is there anything that
we’ve missed?”
Team members should communicate changes in the patient’s condition in order to help
the team leader make calculated and informed decisions correctly.
And another key to effective communication is Summarizing and Reevaluating.
Remember it’s essential as a team leader to monitor treatments and consistently reevaluate.
The team leader should ask himself, “What is the patient’s current status?
What treatments have been performed?
And What change in the patient’s condition have treatments produced?
What are our latest assessment findings?”
It’s a good practice to summarize this information out loud in regular periodic updates to the
team.
Reviewing the status of the resuscitation and verbalizing the next steps is essential
to good open communication and effective team leading.
The next effective communication point is for team members to use what we call Closed-Loop
Communication.
This is done when the team leader gives a message, an order or an assignment.
The leader should make sure the team member has heard the message and understood it by
listening for confirmation before assigning another task.
For example, the team leader states to the IV member, “Give 1 mg epinephrine 1:10,000
IV push and let's flush that line with 20 cc’s of normal saline..”
The IV team member then should restate the order to make sure it was communicated correctly,
like, “Okay, I will give 1 mg epinephrine 1:10,000 IV push and I'll flush the line with
20 cc of normal saline.”
Another communication technique is to give Clear Messages.
It's important for the success of resuscitation efforts to give concise communication with
distinctive speech in a controlled and non-emotional tone of voice.
It should be the goal of all healthcare professionals to deliver messages and orders in a calm and
direct manner without yelling.
Shouting or talking over top of other team members is always going to end up in a negative
outcome.
So if a team leader gives orders in a frantic and fast paced manner, other team members
will feel rushed and confused, and the effectiveness of the team will be hindered.
Lastly, mutual respect is vital for effective communication, let alone the fact that it's
a professional way to communicate amongst healthcare professionals.
The professionals who work together in a respectful and supportive manner achieve much better
outcomes.
Everyone must work diligently towards the same goal.
No one's better than anyone else on the team regardless of the amount of special training,
experience or expertise.
Every team member needs to recognize the value of each other and eliminate ego.
In closing, practicing these effective communication techniques will help produce efficient resuscitation
teams with better patient outcomes and increased survival rates and everybody should be working
towards that goal.