Improving Healthcare Team Communication by Christopher P. Nemeth

Author:Christopher P. Nemeth
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Publisher: Ashgate
Published: 2008-03-08T16:00:00+00:00

Team Communication and Patient Outcomes

Investigations examining communication in the ICU have also shown better communication to be associated with positive patient-related outcomes. Units with higher levels of collaboration between nurses and physicians during patient-transfer decisions have reported lower rates of risk-adjusted mortalities (Baggs et al. 1999). Shortell and colleagues (1992) conducted structured interviews with nurses and doctors in US intensive care units in order to develop a tool for measuring organizational aspects, including communication and leadership. A comparison of interview data from ICU staff members at high and low performing units revealed that the highest performing ICUs reported accurate and open communication between nurses and doctors, flexible leadership patterns with clear goals, and a more collaborative approach to problem solving with the expertise of all team members being utilised. Later studies using the measurement tool revealed, in a survey of 42 ICUs, that the quality of interdisciplinary collaboration was to be associated with ICU performance outcomes, with timely, accurate, and open communication being a major facilitator of well-coordinated patient care (Shortell et al. 1994; Zimmerman et al. 1993). In summary, research investigating the relationship between communication and quality of care in the ICU has shown communication failures as commonly causing errors, and good communication as being associated with positive patient outcomes.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.