ABSTRACT

Effective teamwork and communication by surgeons in the operating room (OR) is crucial to patient safety and quality of care. This chapter discusses the surgeon’s skills for enhancing intraoperative teamworking and communication. It presents the three elements of the teamwork and communication category in Non-Technical Skills for Surgeons: exchanging information, establishing a shared understanding and co-ordinating team activities. The chapter identifies the strategies that surgeons can use to foster effective intraoperative communication. These include the importance of creating a climate for assertiveness and speaking up, and the specific challenges of operating on a conscious patient. The chapter describes interventions that have been shown to improve teamwork and communication for surgeons, and other members of the OR team, such as briefing, timeouts/checklists, debriefing and team training. The chapter discusses how to achieve a shared understanding, it is necessary to discuss two psychological constructs that explain successful teamwork in high-risk industries: shared mental models and team sensemaking.