Healthcare professionals' perceptions of interprofessional teamwork in the emergency department: a critical incident study
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Andersson, Annette Erichsen
Aberg, N David
Gillespie, Brigid M
Oxelmark, Lena
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Background: Interprofessional teams contribute to patient safety during clinical care. However, little is known about how interprofessional teams manage and cope with critical incidents in the emergency department (ED). Therefore, the study aimed to describe healthcare professionals (HCPs) perceptions of critical incidents linked to the enablers of and barriers to interprofessional teamwork in a high-risk setting, the ED. Methods: Individual interviews with HCPs regarding events at the ED were held during the period of May 2019–January 2020. The Critical Incident Technique approach was used to guide the interviews and the qualitative analysis. Data were analyzed inductively using qualitative content analysis. Results: Interview participants (n = 28) included 7 physicians (25%), 12 registered nurses (43%), 7 nurse assistants (25%) and 2 administrators (7%). Overall, 108 critical incidents were described. Eight categories that described functional and dysfunctional experiences within interprofessional teamwork were identified: salience of reflection; professional experience makes a difference; demanding physical and psychosocial work environment; balancing communication demands; lacking management support, structure, and planning; tensions between professional role and responsibility; different views on interprofessional teamwork; and confidence in interprofessional team members. Conclusion: Findings of this study indicate that poor ED-specific communication and limited professional experience are essential factors in handling critical incidents related to interprofessional teamwork. An important aspect of critical incident management is the ergonomics of the physical work environment and how it enables interprofessional teamwork. This study emphasizes the factors enabling interprofessional teamwork to manage critical incidents in the complex working environment of the ED.
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Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine
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30
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© The Author(s) 2022. Open Access This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made.
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Subject
Emergency medicine
Science & Technology
Life Sciences & Biomedicine
Interprofessional teamwork
Communication
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Milton, J; Andersson, AE; Aberg, ND; Gillespie, BM; Oxelmark, L, Healthcare professionals' perceptions of interprofessional teamwork in the emergency department: a critical incident study, Scandinavian Journal of Trauma, Resuscitation and Emergency Medicine, 2022, 30, pp. 46