The Effectiveness of Team Training on Fall Prevention

Purpose: The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a training curriculum based on TeamSTEPPS® on team members' safety culture, attitude, teamwork perception, and communication as a mediator to reduce falls and injuries.

Methods: A longitudinal, repeated measures design, with intervention and comparison groups was conducted to evaluate the effect of a training curriculum based on TeamSTEPPS® with video vignettes focusing on fall prevention for debriefing and reinforcement on participants’ safety culture, teamwork attitude, teamwork perception, and communication as a mediator to reduce falls and injuries. Questionnaires, behavioral observations, and fall data were collected over 9 months from both groups located at separate hospitals.

Results: The intervention group questionnaire scores improved on all measures except teamwork perception, while observations revealed an improvement in communication compared with the control group. Furthermore, a 60% fall reduction occurred in the intervention group.

Conclusion: Implementation of team training in healthcare organizations may be a promising intervention for enhancing teamwork and communication and reducing falls and related injuries.