Learning Objective #1: Describe health care providers' views of teamwork from a qualitative analysis from trauma resuscitation teams

Learning Objective #2: Examine new approaches to health care professions education to modify the way providers work together

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Purpose: There is scant research to guide the sweeping changes in health professions education cited by the Institute of Medicine (2003) related to poor teamwork behaviors, key to safe health care (1999). To address this deficit, the research question in a multiphase project asked, What are health care providers' views about working together? Trauma resuscitation teams formed the target population as an interdisciplinary group coming together for a defined purpose with quick action. Method: A guided interview format used open ended questions during four focus groups (N=17) with residents (8), attending physicians (1), fellows (3) and nurses (5). A Demographic Form captured age, gender, education, certification, and work experience. Tape-recorded interviews were transcribed for qualitative descriptive analysis according to each provider group. Findings: Two investigators read and re-read the transcripts to comprehend the whole and highlight relevant data bits. Synthesis revealed five common patterns across groups: Bringing the team together; Defining the work; Doing the work; Interacting; and Influence on what happens. Analysis by the research team identified themes with descriptive elements for each pattern to compare and contrast focus groups, confirmed by other team members and representative participants. Discussion: Findings form the basis for new approaches to health care professions education. Misperceptions on roles, expertise and skills, and communication priorities must be overcome with evidenced based training. Openly discussing the way people work together for influences from organizational culture, hierarchies, system of checks and balances, and complex environmental factors underscore teamwork as a complementary relationship of interdependence. These views are consistent with the aviation model of teamwork based on human factors engineering, cited as a model to revitalize the health care environment, transitioning to one of safety and quality. This study was funded by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality