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Assessment of Complex Care Teams Situation Awareness of Non-routine Events in Emergency Situations
Event Type
Oral Presentations
TimeTuesday, April 132:20pm - 2:40pm EDT
LocationEducation and Simulation
DescriptionThe pediatric intensive care unit cares for critically ill children that require minute to minute titration of medications and mechanical support such as a ventilator. They are at risk of having an acute life treating event and as such have a highly skilled care team taking care for them. In the event of an acute event, rapid mobilization of a complex team is required. This team can include different members from within the ICU or it includes members of other teams within the hospital. These sudden events can occur at any time and the responding members may have a varying degree of familiarity with each other and varying degrees of individual experience. During these events individual and team situation awareness are important factors in how a team, with varying familiarity, is able to come together and perform a complex coordination of tasks to provide care to a patient.

In our study we are assessing how the level of individual and team situation awareness affects team performance. Additionally, we are determining how physiologic responses to stress (e.g., heart rate variability and skin temperature) and environmental conditions (e.g., room size, noise, and movement) affect individual-level and team-level situation awareness. The physiologic response may differ based on the experience of the team member and their role within the team. Individual physiologic responses may affect individual situation awareness and lead to changes in team situation awareness and team performance.

In order to measure physiologic responses, participants will be asked to wear a device that will capture their heart rate and skin temperature. Environmental activity will be measured by using a sound level meter to record the noise level and by audio and video recording of the simulated scenarios to assess room size and the movements of team members during the simulation. Situation awareness will be captured by a survey at the end of the simulated scenario.

Determining the relationships between team member experience level, individual physiologic response, team member’s situation awareness, and how those affect team-level situation awareness and performance will inform the creation of educational offerings, potential process changes, and possible system changes. Identification of these areas of opportunities will enable an appropriate implementation of interventions that will allow for more effective and efficient teamwork in a high stress field of healthcare.