Improvements in Teamwork During Neonatal Resuscitation After Interprofessional TeamSTEPPS Training

Purpose: To determine the impact of interprofessional Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) training on teamwork skills during neonatal resuscitation

Design: Teams of physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists participated in TeamSTEPPS training that included simulation with an event-based approach. During the simulations, scripted medication order and performance errors were used to test teamwork skills. Measures of teamwork skills were obtained before and after the training using a prospective pretest–posttest design.

Sample: Forty-two physicians, nurses, and respiratory therapists

Main Outcome Variable: Teamwork skills

Result: Significant improvements in teamwork skills were seen in team structure, leadership, situation monitoring, mutual support, and communication (p <.001). Challenges by nurses to a scripted medication order error doubled from 38 percent before the training to 77 percent after the training. The odds of a nurse challenging an incorrect medication dose from an attending neonatologist improved significantly. Detection and correction of inadequate chest compressions increased from 61.5 to 84.6 percent after the training.