ABSTRACT
This chapter presents data from the Lancaster anaesthetic expertise study, looking at communication between members of the anaesthesia team at a number of transition points: induction of anaesthesia, emergence from anaesthesia and handover of the patient in the recovery room. Effective communication skills are required for the practice of anaesthesia as they are for any branch of clinical medicine. Most commonly, an individual anaesthesiologist was observed during the course of a routine operating theatre session. The anaesthesiologists taking part all had the opportunity to decline to be involved either in the study as a whole or in individual observation. At the end of the surgical operation, the anaesthesiologist must allow the patient to regain consciousness and control of his/her vital functions once more. Talk unites the anaesthetic team both in the sense that they may all participate in it, but also because it signals to the rest of the team how the process of induction is progressing.
