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From January 24 to 27, the Military Health System will host their annual conference at the Gaylord National Hotel and Convention Center, National Harbor, Md. The focus of the 2011 Conference is on sharing knowledge and achieving breakthrough performance in health-care delivery, research, education and training. Each day features a specific educational theme with all plenary and breakout sessions aligned to furthering the goals of the Quadruple Aim and the associated Strategic Imperatives. Four-thousand military and civilian medical personnel are expected to attend the conference.

The DoD Patient Safety Program will be a key player in the conference’s proceedings. PSP Leadership will showcase the new Patient Safety Reporting System, promote professional conduct as a critical component for team-driven practice, and highlight the Patient Safety Award winning projects. Awards will be presented to selected individuals whose efforts have advanced patient safety and improved health care during the Plenary Sessions. Additionally, the program will be exhibiting in the exhibit hall.

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Reliably providing safe and high quality care depends on effective teamwork. The Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS®) program is the foundational method for improving teamwork and culture change in the Military Healthcare System and beyond. For most learners, understanding the basic TeamSTEPPS content is relatively easy (e.g., knowing what a check-back is and why it is important). However, applying that knowledge and skill in their work can be much more difficult (e.g., actually using check-backs on the job). Simulation-based training is a powerful tool for bridging this gap between learning and application. Here, learners are able to try out and establish new ways of communication, coordinating, and collaborating in a safe environment with no risks to real patients.

In the coming months, the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ)/DoD will be releasing a new module which augments the TeamSTEPPS curriculum: “Using Simulation with TeamSTEPPS.” This new module will focus on the fundamentals of instructional design for simulation, including: 1) how to design effective simulation scenarios for teamwork training 2) how to measure team performance during learning activities, and 3) how to provide effective feedback in facilitated debriefs. This content is briefly previewed below.

What is simulation-based training?
Simulation-based training is not a technology. It is a method or strategy for providing structured practice-based learning activities with opportunities to perform and receive feedback on targeted behaviors. While much simulation-based training takes advantage of the recent advancements in simulator technology within healthcare (e.g., high-fidelity mannequin-based patient simulators), access to such resources in not a necessity for teamwork training. The principles of simulation-based training can be applied to low-fidelity simulations and role-play activities as well. This makes simulation-based training a versatile method for teamwork that can be included during initial training activities as well as on refresher and ongoing opportunities to learn both on and off the clinical units.

Why is scenario design so important?
It has been said that “the scenario is the curriculum” in simulation-based training. The scenario content sets the boundaries around what can and cannot be learned from the experience, and structured scenarios have proven to be vastly more effective than ‘free play’ scenarios. For TeamSTEPPS training, an effective scenario includes explicit events linked to targeted teamwork behaviors. By creating situations that require a teamwork response to manage effectively, these events are opportunities to perform and practice teamwork behaviors identified in learning objectives.

Why measure team performance in simulation?
Practice alone is not enough to ensure learning from experience. Learners must receive accurate, timely, and improvement focused feedback. Team performance measurement can help to ensure that this process is systematic and based on a valid understanding of how the team performed during a scenario. A well designed scenario greatly simplifies the process of team performance measurement as the events described above help to outline the expectations for what good team performance looks like in a given scenario.

Why facilitated debriefs?
Feedback is critical for learning. In simulation-based team training, the most effective feedback strategy has been shown to be the facilitated debrief. Facilitated debriefs involve a post-scenario discussion where the team is guided through a self-reflection process, identifying the strengths and weaknesses in their performance and developing specific goals for the future. Managing this process effectively requires a specific set of skills for the facilitator including the ability to establish a safe learning climate and to scaffold the group’s learning process with different facilitation strategies (e.g., advocacy and inquiry, open ended and close ended questioning).

For more information:
The AHRQ module for simulation and TeamSTEPPS will be available through the AHRQ website (teamstepps.ahrq.gov) in early 2011. Also, these topics will be presented at a workshop entitled “Systems Approach to Team Debriefing: Improving Team Performance” at the International Meeting on Simulation in Healthcare in New Orleans from Jan. 21- 23, 2011.

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Promoting professional conduct is a form of mutual support and an important component of an overall patient safety strategy. The Professional Conduct Toolkit was created by the DoD Patient Safety Program in response to requests for a resource dedicated to helping health professionals address disruption and conflict that can impact team performance.

As a supplement to TeamSTEPPS, the Professional Conduct Toolkit provides evidence-based content, exercises, and learning aids to use with your group and as a self-learning resource. To support adoption of the toolkit, we are providing a series of webinars highlighting the four modules found in the toolkit. These webinars will provide an overview of each module, suggestions for integrating the toolkit with TeamSTEPPS, and an opportunity to ask questions related to professional conduct.

Webinar Schedule
Series One
Module One: February 17, 2011, 2- 3PM Eastern
From Avoidance to Engagement: A Strategic Approach for Promoting Professional Conduct

Module Two: March 3, 2011, 2-3PM Eastern
When You Can’t Vote Them Off of the Island- Tips for Engaging with Surly Colleagues

Module Three: March 17, 2011, 2 -3 PM Eastern
An Inconvenient Truth: The Role of Leaders in Promoting Professional Conduct Across the Organization

Module Four: March 31, 2011, 2-3 pm Eastern
Techniques for Maintaining Resilience: When Working With High Conflict People

If you cannot attend Series One, a second series will be offered later in the year.

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The PSP Fall 2010 Quarterly Newsletter recently published. Click here for an update on the Patient Safety Reporting System, Basic Patient Safety Manager Course Updates, Innovating Teaching Methods, and more.

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DoD Events

Jan. 10-14, 2011, All Day
Basic Patient Safety Manager’s Course
Additional Information and Registration

Jan. 13, 2011, 1400-1600 ET
TapRooT® Version 5 Overview for DoD Facilities
Registration Information available on the Patient Safety Learning Center

Jan. 20, 2011, 1400-1500 ET
PSR: Event Harm Classification Part 2 - Focus on Specific Locations
Register

Jan. 24-27, 2011, All Day
2011 MHS Conference

Every Tuesday, 1000-1200 ET
Patient Safety Learning Center Support Line

Other National Events
Jan. 11, 2011, 1400-1500 ET
NPSF Patient Safety Awareness Week Webcast
Register

Jan. 19, 2011, 1000-1100 ET
NPSF Webcast “Meaningful Use of HIT: An Essential Platform for Patient Safety” Register

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The DoD PSLC is a resource for medical and dental professionals to come together and partner for a new level of care. You can register for the PSLC on the DoD Patient Safety website at http://health.mil/dodpatientsafety/

PSAC Focused Review on Dental 2010
The updated review has been posted to the PSM Document Library. View the Focused Review

The DoD Ambulatory Patient Falls Toolkit
One of the leading event types that results in patient harm within the DoD involves patient falls in the ambulatory care area. The DoD Ambulatory Patient Falls Toolkit was developed to answer the challenges associated with falls in the ambulatory setting by identifying at-risk patients and providing proactive strategies to reduce the frequency and severity of fall related incidents — to establish a safe environment that prevents patient harm. View the Ambulatory Falls Toolkit

Share your Impact Stories through the PSLC
Leverage the successes, emerging practices, and innovations from other patient safety professionals to improve safe quality care. Share your Impact Story!

PSLC Support Line
An open phone line for real-time support with the PSLC is available every Tuesday from 1000-1200 ET. Call 866-657-9756 and enter 723389 (SAFETY) when prompted for an access code. Become a PSLC Member
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These articles are external and provided for information purposes only.
The DoD does not sponsor these websites.

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