Improving Trauma Nurse Team Communication

Posted: January 4th, 2023

Improving Trauma Nurse Team Communication

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Improving Trauma Nurse Team Communication

Interprofessional teamwork is perceived as essential to enhancing the quality of client management in vital settings like trauma emergency sections, despite not being wholly conceptualized in these spheres to guide clinical practice. The objective of this investigative study is to explore how formal communication frameworks can help to enhance service delivery to patients suffering from trauma. Teamwork and communication play an integral part in adverse clinic events. Given the time-sensitive and multidisciplinary viewpoint of trauma care, the influences of communication and collaboration can be principally pronounced in the caregiving of extremely injured individuals. Proficient communication in present-day trauma care is vital because the process of delivery incorporates many patient handoffs and spread among numerous healthcare specialists with diverse degrees of professional training and education.

Discussion

According to Buljac-Samardzic, Doekhie, and Wijngaarden (2020), in the span of a four-day clinic stay, patients can intermingle with over fifty diverse healthcare practitioners, which includes residents, RNs, technicians, and physicians, among others. Accordingly, the effective clinical process involves numerous scenarios where vital facts have to be conveyed in a timely and precise manner, making collaboration among team members important. When healthcare experts do not interconnect meritoriously in clearly-laid out procedures, patient well-being is placed at peril for various reasons: misunderstanding of information, deficiency of essential info, disregarded changes regarding patient status, and vague orders made on phone. Insufficient or lack of communication across teams creates instances where clinical errors can happen. Such errors have the latency of causing unexpected patient death or severe injury, especially in trauma scenarios. Clinical errors, particularly those emanating from the failure to communicate effectively, remain a pervasive issue in the current healthcare setting.

Contrary to conventional belief, gossip remains one of the most vital forms of communication for healthcare organization managers to control and utilize it to influence positive effects to assist them to achieve their objectives. As outlined by Altuntas, Altun, and Akyil (2015), over 75 percent of organizational communication is via informal communication, with gossip being a critical channel. Nurses utilize this form of communication most frequently regarding working conditions in situations they feel the need to share information on a face-to-face basis, especially when they are angry. Here, the suggestion is that organizational managers have to blend both formal and informal communication approaches within nursing teams in trauma settings for greater efficiency.

Among the most effective formal communication strategies for nursing teams are regular team meetings guided by clear agendas and minutes, computer-aided communication, memorandums, and updated communication logs. Informal communication channels have been established to be opportunistic and open, mirroring conventional hallway consultation (Eloniemi et al., 2015). For issues concerning trauma patients, face-to-face communication is preferred. Nursing team members’ attributes in the facilitation of effective communication include proximity, availability, and approachability. For instance, team leaders who select regular meetings as a way of sharing experiences and exchanging information regarding trauma care, approachability and availability are critical. Today, primary healthcare demands for efficient and enhanced communication that optimizes patient care and team functioning. Elements such as leadership and communication influence the medical outcomes of the trauma teams.

As per a study by Sundstrøm et al. (2020), it was established that leaders utilize educational, coercive, negotiating, and discussing approaches to work out things in trauma teams. It is critical to start and maintain formal communication within formal settings, which means that appropriate preparation cannot be overlooked. For example, nursing teams follow a comprehensive process that involves several steps. First, the teams ensure that they possess a thorough synopsis of the patients’ medical history, recognize what has already been done and what more needs to be undertaken, and know the patients’ relatives, including in what way they are related to one another (Sibiya, 2018). Besides, formal communication strategies such as team meetings demand that nurses maintain their individual opinions apart from conventional ethics. Nurses are also encouraged to document summaries of dialogues in patient journals for easier follow-ups. Effective communication is dependent on sensitivity, trust, and simplicity, with information being delivered in small portions. Additionally, the nurses have to comprehend that the trauma patient is an individual who could be a brother, daughter, or son, as opposed to a complicated traumatic severe brain injury case.

As is often in most organizational settings, formal communication can include non-verbal forms. Such information is conveyed through an individual’s body, as opposed to writing or speech. Body language tells a lot and can completely send the wrong or unintended message (Sibiya, 2018). It is important to note that body language indicates different meanings to the people it is directed at. As outlined by Sibiya (2018), around 60 percent of all communication is non-verbal, which makes this form of communication indispensable even in formal settings. Consequently, non-verbal skills are important for effective team communication. Typically, non-verbal communication conveys stronger signals as compared with verbal messages. Forms of non-verbal communication include bodily contact, accent, the direction of gaze, posture, physical appearance, gestural and facial movements, the timing of speech, speech errors, and proximity. Good team leaders in trauma care have to ensure they possess positive non-verbal communication attributes for the effective conveyance of messages.

According to a study by Conn et al. (2016), nurse-driven rounding enhances communication in trauma Surgical Intensive Care Units. Poor communication among physicians and nurses in a trauma SICU can elevate the risk of negative outcomes. To boost SICU collaboration and communication, trauma care providers tend to establish nurse-driven rounding procedures. The innovative practise underlines nursing guidance and input, judicious decision-making, and planned communication. The first step involves establishing a standardized rounding script. For example, there could be various weaknesses during morning rounds, such as latent confusion regarding nurse roles and patient orders. Nurses can prevent such communication gaps using a rounding script that requires all the members to make formal introductions at the commencement of each round. On top of a conventional systems-founded presentation from the elementary resident, the novel practice encompasses a structured presentation made by the bedside registered nurse. The presentation emphasizes critical patient updates and concerns among the staff. Moreover, the process also encompasses real-time order entries made by residents utilizing a mobile workstation. When the round comes to an end, the residents have to read back all the amended or new orders.

The second step involves giving RNs consistent leadership roles to prevent risks of miscommunication. The fluidity of information is essential because each nurse plays a different role in the trauma care process (Eloniemi et al., 2015; Sibiya, 2018). In nursing teams, it is emblematic for some RNs to feel comfortable offering input and making queries, while others fail to do so. To guarantee a consistent part for bedside residents and nurses, healthcare organizations have to design a structured registered nurse presentation. Utilizing a template form, bedside RNs and residents can offer modifications on patients’ cardiac, neurological, abdominal, and respirational status. Likewise, the presentation is often inclusive of patient event reports together with information of nursing team issues and any other family concerns. Working from a template makes communication much easier and formal since all the RNs are aware of what to report and in what manner. Templates help teams to avoid the recurrent instances where the nurses have to correct the resident with more updated information, for instance, updated drip rates or ventilator settings.

Nurses have also established that insufficient information during the nighttime hours leads to problems in communication. When communication during such hours between nurses and residents is insufficient, it is typical for non-urgent issues to accumulate (Altuntas, Altun, & Akyil, 2015). To correct the issue, it is imperative for team leaders to establish standardized nighttime check-ins. Overnight residents have to visit every patient and his or her bedside nurse in person to address emergent issues or place orders upon the request of the RNs.

Conclusion

Formal communication among nurse team members caring for trauma patients is essential to achieve the expected health outcomes. Miscommunication in trauma care can lead to severe injuries or unexpected mortality. Well-laid out communication systems are important for nurses and residents to prevent such occurrences. Structured presentations, regular face-to-face meetings, memorandums, and homogenous templates, as well as nurse-driven rounding are among the most effective channels of enhancing communication among nurse teams. When accomplished successfully, nurses can achieve their objectives of positive patient outcomes while minimizing clinical errors.

References

Altuntas, S., Altun, Ö. Ş., & Akyil, R. Ç. (2015). The nurses’ form of organizational communication: What is the role of gossip? Contemporary nurse: a journal for the Australian nursing profession 48(1), 3908-3922.

Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & Wijngaarden, J. D. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past decad. Human Resources for Health 18(2), https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0411-3.

Conn, L. G., Haas, B., Cuthbertson, B. H., Amaral, A. C., & Coburn, N. N. (2016). Communication and culture in the surgical intensive care unit: Boundary production and the improvement of patient care. Qualitative Health Research 26(7), 895-906.

Eloniemi, S., Jämsä, T., Kivimäki, J., Kobayashi, M., & Mäkelä, L. (2015). Communication and interaction of trauma team. Seinajoki: Seinäjoen Ammattikorkeakoulu.

Sibiya, M. N. (2018). Effective Communication in nursing. Intech Open, DOI: 10.5772/intechopen.74995.

Sundstrøm, T., Grände, P.-O., Luoto, T., Rosenlund, C., Undén, J., & Wester, K. G. (2020). Management of severe traumatic brain injury: Evidence, tricks, and pitfalls. New York, NY: Springer Nature.