Is team training at healthcare sites effective?
In the June 2016 issue of the Journal of Applied Psychology Authors Eduardo Salas, Lauren Benishek, Megan Gregory, and Ashley Hughes in an article titled “Saving Lives: A Meta-Analysis of Team Training in Healthcare” set out to answer the question of whether team training is effective in healthcare. health, if you drive to reduce mortality and improve health outcomes.
Their research found that a preventable medical error occurs in one out of every three hospital admissions and results in 98,000 deaths per year, a figure corroborated in To err is human. Teamwork errors due to communication failures account for 68.3% of these errors. Therefore, effective team training is necessary to reduce errors in hospitals and outpatient settings.
The authors used a meta-analysis research method to determine if there are effective training methods in the health care setting that can have a significant impact on medical errors, which in turn would improve outcomes and reduce costs by eliminating costs. associated with errors. A meta-analysis is a comprehensive investigation of the existing literature to answer the research questions posed by the research team or authors.
The research team asked three questions to answer:
1. Is team building in health effective?
2. Under what conditions is the training of the health team effective?
3. How does the training of the health team influence the final results of the organization and of the patients?
The team limited their meta-analysis to health care teams even though there is a large body of research available on the effectiveness of team training in other industries and service organizations. The team believes that healthcare teams differ significantly from teams in other areas in that there can be much greater team fluidity in healthcare. That is, team membership is not always static, especially in places like hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. There are more transfers on these sites.
While there is more fluidity in team membership at healthcare sites, roles are well defined. For example, the role of a physician assistant in a primary care setting is well defined even though different MAs may be working with a physician. These roles are further defined and limited by state licenses. As the research team stated in their article, “These characteristics make healthcare team training a unique form of training that is likely to be developed and implemented differently than more traditional team training…”
The team evaluated their article research using the Kirkpatrick Training Effectiveness Model, a widely used framework for evaluating team training. It consists of four evaluation areas:
1. Trail Reactions
2. Learning
3.Transfer
4.Results
Reaction it is the extent to which the learner finds the instruction useful or the extent to which he or she enjoys it. Learning it is defined as a relatively permanent change in knowledge, skills and abilities. The authors point out that team training is not a difficult skill, like learning to draw blood. Rather, it is a soft knowledge skill. Some researchers question whether it is possible to effectively measure the acquisition of these soft team skills. The team of authors effectively argues that it can.
to transfer is the use of trained knowledge, skills and abilities in the workplace. That is, can team building be effectively applied in the workplace? Results These are the impacts of training on patient health, the reduction of medical errors, the improvement of patient satisfaction and the reduction of costs in the provision of care.
To ensure that the changes in these four areas were ‘real’, the team only used literature that had pre-post evaluations to see if there were any statistically significant changes in all four areas.
Using this assessment rubric, the team was able to answer the three questions it posed. First, team building in health care is effective. Healthcare team training closely matches training in other industries and service organizations.
Second, training is surprisingly effective regardless of training design and implementation, learner characteristics, and work environment characteristics. Never mind the use of multiple learning strategies versus a single training strategy. Simulations of a work environment are not necessary. Training can occur in a standard classroom setting.
The training is effective for all staff members, regardless of their certification. Training for all clinical and administrative staff is effective. Team training is also effective in all care settings.
Finally, team meta-analysis shows that, within the Kirkpatrick rubric, team training is effective in producing the organizational goals of better care at lower costs with higher patient satisfaction. In the rubric, student reactions are not as important as learning and transfer in producing results. It is important for trainers to use pre- and post-training assessments to gauge whether skills, knowledge and abilities have been learned and transferred to the workplace. The effectiveness of training should always be evaluated so that training programs can be constantly improved.
