Teamwork can be enhanced through clear communication and co-operative problem-solving, which require staff to be prepared and capable to manage different situations. Staff need to be provided with opportunities to share understanding of the focus and priorities for the day, and to improve their situational awareness of safety concerns.
Emergency/Crisis
Organisations need processes that anticipate common critical situations, with agreed processes to prevent critical situations, or to manage them if they occur. However, to maximise learning and staff morale, attention needs to be given to positive events and experiences. To ensure that critical staff are freed up as far as possible to deal with the actual events, monitoring and response activities for critical situations need to be brief.
Transformation of Care
Staff training in the use of structured communication at handover can support positive handover experiences.
Multidisciplinary Safety Huddles and Briefings
Safety huddles are short multidisciplinary briefings, held at a predictable time and place, with a focus on specific safety issues. Effective safety huddles include the review of data, and allow the sharing of anticipated problems in relation to safety issues.
Safety briefings are short meetings where staff share information about safety concerns, near misses and anticipate potential safety problems on a daily basis. Safety briefings are a way to increase staff awareness of safety issues; to create an environment in which staff share information without fear of reprisal; and to integrate safety into daily work.
