Anesthesia Student Survival Guide.pdf - Index of

ProfessionAlism, sAfety, And teAmwork ● 477
● Adaptability: Team members must be able to meet and communicate in
order to change plans as the clinical situation dictates.
● Team orientation: Team members must understand and trust that the safest
way to care for patients is to ensure proper functioning of the team. This is
contrary to traditional medical teaching, which emphasizes that a physician
has a moral responsibility directly to his/her patients.
These five behaviors are then supported by closed-loop communication, team
structure to ensure role clarity, the development of shared mental models
(ensuring that all team members have the same understanding of the patient
plans), and maintenance of situational awareness (an individual awareness of
all factors on the unit that could influence the safe conduct of patient care). The
operating room lends itself to the team training model.
Anesthesiologists have led the development of simulation-based courses
for teaching CRM-based teamwork concepts to groups of anesthesiologists. In
simulation-based team training, the clinician (or clinicians) is placed in a simulated
clinical environment (see Chap. 32, Simulation). Classroom-based team
training employs didactic education techniques along with low-level simulation,
exemplary vignettes, and videos to teach and practice the CRM concepts.
The primary advantage of this type of training is that it is relatively inexpensive,
and easy to ensure that all staff members are trained in CRM concepts.
Classroom-based team training has been shown to improve clinicians’ attitudes
toward patient and to improve patient outcomes in obstetrics and emergency
medicine. Irrespective of the team training method, it is important to have an
implementation plan designed to transfer the teamwork skills from the classroom
or simulator to the clinical arena.
Putting It All Together
The public trusts that through education and training an anesthesiologist will
have acquired a level of clinical competence and expertise that surpasses that
of a technician or lesser trained individual. Furthermore, it is expected that
the technical expertise will be matched by an intellectual understanding of the
needs and requirements of the patient, as well as the ability to communicate
effectively and compassionately. The trust exhibited between the anesthesiologists,
surgeons, and other healthcare providers and the lay public represents the
very essence of professionalism.