TeamSTEPPS® Team-building training & consultation

Julia Slininger

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety designed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Department of Defense (TeamSTEPPS®) teaches health care professionals how to integrate teamwork principles into daily practice throughout the organization.  Create a culture of situational awareness, mutual support and a shared mental model for those who work not only in high-stress areas — such as surgical suites, critical care, labor and delivery, and the ED — but in areas throughout the hospital.  These program attributes improve communication and shift the organization into a culture known for high reliability in quality and patient safety.

A New Approach to Error Prevention

Bring strength and vitality to your patient safety culture with a new approach to error prevention — TeamSTEPPS®.
TeamSTEPPS® teaches health care professionals how to integrate teamwork principles into daily practice throughout the organization.  Create a culture of situational awareness, mutual support and a shared mental model for those who work not only in high-stress areas — such as surgical suites, critical care, labor and delivery, and the ED — but in areas throughout the hospital.  These program attributes improve communication and shift the organization into a culture known for high reliability in quality and patient safety.
TeamSTEPPS offers training in four core competency areas:

• Team leadership — the ability to motivate, direct and coordinate team activities; assess performance; develop team knowledge and skills; and establish a positive team atmosphere.
• Situation monitoring (or mutual performance monitoring) — the capacity to develop common understandings of the team environment and apply appropriate strategies to effectively monitor teammate performance.
• Mutual support (or back-up behavior) — the ability to anticipate other team members’ needs and to shift workload among members to achieve balance.
• Communication — the efficient exchange of information and consultation with other team members.

How Can TeamSTEPPS® Benefit My Hospital?

TeamSTEPPS® can help your hospital:

• Prevent medical errors
• Improve perinatal safety
• Avoid surgical mishaps
• Optimize communication
• Build physician/staff relations
• Enhance employee satisfaction 

What We Offer

HASC offers consultative assistance to help your team get started with a train-the-trainer approach. You can select a one-day Essentials Course for key team members to learn which TeamSTEPPS® modules will best meet your facility’s needs, or opt for a full three-day engagement involving more members of the core team who will take you beyond the initial review of program tools into design and implementation of your TeamSTEPPS® intervention.
Here is what one hospital has to say about their TeamSTEPPS® engagement with HASC:

“Our three-day TeamSTEPPS® training with HASC has been rated as the best educational program experience by our entire team of attendees.  Within six weeks of our training, we had implemented two TeamSTEPPS® tools in L&D & OR, had the full support of our Medical Executive Committee, one of whom volunteered to be the physician champion for this project, and we had a house-wide plan to implement one of the tools. The training provided by HASC is a great value, the benefits to patients served by our organization are priceless.”

Coleen Thompson, RN, BSN, CPHQ
Quality & Patient Safety Manager
Redlands Community Hospital

Communications and coordination are critical in any medical environment. Contact us today for more information.