Patient safety, morbidity, and mortality are directly correlated with interprofessional (IP) collaboration among healthcare practitioners (HCPs). Effective strategies to promote teamwork and communication among HCPs are essential to decrease preventable medical errors and promote patient safety. Despite the importance of IP collaboration in today’s healthcare system, HCPs continue to be educated in silos, leaving new graduates unprepared for IP teamwork and collaboration (Clark, Congdon, MacMillan, Gonzales, & Guerra, 2015). Research has shown that it is important to introduce pre-licensure healthcare students to IP teamwork training early in their education, before the students are completely enmeshed in their own professions (Fewster-Thuente, 2014). Developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ), Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) offers a standardized curriculum for IP teamwork training that can be easily adapted to pre-licensure HCP curricula. The purpose of this integrative review was to determine the current state of the science related to TeamSTEPPS integration into pre-licensure healthcare professionals’ curricula.
Methods:
An integrative review of the literature was conducted using the Whittemore and Knafl’s (2005) updated methodology using the CINAHL and PubMed databases, was conducted. Key terms used for the search included various combinations of: TeamSTEPPS, interprofessional, undergraduate, pre-licensure, education, students, and nursing. In addition to the database searches, ancestral searches of reference lists of all relevant articles were also performed using the same key terms.
Results:
Nine quantitative research studies were identified for inclusion in this integrative review. Most of the available literature focuses on nursing and medical students with limited attention to the allied health professions. The integration of TeamSTEPPS into pre-licensure curriculum at this time is generally limited to one curricular course, or a one-time educational experience. The available literature suggests that using TeamSTEPPS within pre-licensure education supports the development of IP teamwork knowledge and attitudes in interdisciplinary HCP students. The existing literature does not provide evidence for best practice for educational modalities for TeamSTEPPS training since there is no consensus on teaching strategies for TeamSTEPPS.
Conclusion:
Due to the limited and varied findings in the existing literature, continued research is needed to empirically support best practice for TeamSTEPPS training in pre-licensure healthcare education to ultimately support safe, quality patient care.