Conference Proceedings - School of Nursing & Midwifery - Trinity ...

School of Nursing & Midwifery, Trinity College Dublin: 8 th Annual Interdisciplinary Research Conference
Transforming Healthcare Through Research, Education & Technology: 7 th – 9 th November 2007
Conference Proceedings
This study is an unfolding of the socially constructioned reality
of communication as seen through the perspectives of the operating
room team members. To develop this study I borrowed from the
traditions of ethnography and narrative interviewing. Within the
frame of culture and relationships I wanted to understand how the
operating room team members perceive their communication as
related to creating a culture of safety. Specifically, this was a search
for information as related to the social construction of team
interactions in healthcare within the context of the medical
hierarchy and communication, does the team sense that there are
specific communication patterns due to the hierarchy, and how do
they think these patterns may alter potential patient outcomes.
Background and Importance of Effective Healthcare Communication
The background idea for this study comes from the notion
that healthcare professionals have found through observation and
research that human communication is highly variable and at times
ineffective due to professional, cultural, individual, and
environmental differences, and technological change (Chillers,
1998; Mckinney, Barker, Davis & Smith 2005; Pearce, 1989;
Pearce, 2005; Shotter, 1995; Steier, 1992). A specific example of
communication variability and ineffectiveness is found in the area of
surgical intervention. Healthcare professionals now understand that
wrong site surgeries are linked to problems with communication,
and due to frequent communication issues there are still a multitude
of wrong site surgeries occurring per year (Spath, 2005; Joint
Commission Accreditation on Healthcare Organizations, 2004).
Culture of Safety
In reaction to this issue and a heightened awareness for the
need to increase patient safety, in the year of 2004 healthcare
professionals recognized that clearer communication patterns must
be developed to ensure patient safety, particularly in the operating
room (OR). Therefore in the OR, healthcare professionals set
themselves to establish communication that is clear and precise in
an effort to develop a culture of safety (Joint Commission
Accreditation on Healthcare Organizations, 2004).
Universal Protocol
The culture of safety is based on the model of feedback in
communication where conversation creates clear meaning (Joint
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