ABSTRACT
Multidisciplinary team work has been widely recognized as an important approach in health care (1) and few will dispute the critical role of this approach for patients receiving prolonged mechanical ventilation (PMV). Teams make fewer mistakes than individuals, especially when each team member knows his or her responsibilities as well as those of other team members (2,3). The effectiveness of a team resides in having each member perform predetermined tasks simultaneously, thus reducing complex processes into concise manageable components (4,5). However, teamwork is not an automatic consequence of colocating people together. Regardless of each member’s individual skills, it depends more on the member’s willingness to cooperate, communicate, and share a common goal. For decades, commercial aviation has shifted from individual pilot skill training to an interdisciplinary team training program that incorporates proven methods for team management (2,3,6). The essence of these methods consists of training the crew in a cluster of specific knowledge, skills, and attitudes that facilitate coordination and adaptation as well as providing support to the objectives and mission of the other teammates (7,8).
