A recent study, led by Dr Sharon Bourke, has highlighted the importance of team communication in enhancing patient care and safety within healthcare, particularly in emergency settings.
“Identifying and managing patient deterioration in healthcare is a current international priority,” says Dr Bourke.
“The evidence suggests that patients are harmed when systems of care are not in place or are not utilised effectively. Some reports indicate that up to 80% of medical errors in healthcare are associated with a lack of non-technical skills such as communication, teamwork and sound decision-making.”
“This is particularly evident in high-risk environments, such as emergency settings.”
Given that nurses are well-positioned to be the drivers of good team communication, Dr Bourke and her team explored how nursing students communicate in simulated patient emergencies.
“We also examined how a range of factors, such as culture, language, gender, age and power dynamics, effect nursing students' team communication,” she says.
“Our findings revealed that students place value on, and are therefore influenced by, their familiarity with team members, their background and life experiences, and role models.”
This first-of-its-kind study also focused on constructing a theoretical model that explains the dynamics of team communication among nursing students.
“We identified a significant theoretical construct called 'navigating uncertainty’ that helps to explain students’ actions and how their communication within emergency teams is influenced,” says Dr Bourke.
“The core process of ‘navigating uncertainty’ is represented in three transitional stages – ‘finding a place in the team’, ‘understanding and working out differences’, and ‘looking to the future and developing strategies to improve communication’.”
“Further, education emerged as playing a key role in the tolerance of uncertainty, highlighting the importance of delivering education that focus on developing students’ team communication skills, ability to self-evaluate and resilience.”
Dr Bourke says the findings of this study have important implications for future research, nursing education and nursing practice.
“Our next steps include developing a training program that focuses on leadership and teamwork skills, particularly for culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) groups of nursing students, and preparing educators to develop students’ abilities using the ‘navigating uncertainty’ model.”
