Improving Staff Perception of a Safety Climate with CRM Training

• Published in: The Journal of surgical research
• Main Authors: Kuy, SreyRam, MD, MHS, Romero, Ramon A.L., MD, FACS
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 2016
• Subjects: Surgery; Quality Improvement; Patient Safety; Crew Resource Management Training
• ISSN: 0022-4804
• DOI: 10.1016/j.jss.2016.04.013

Abstract Background Communication failure is one of the top root causes in patient safety adverse events. Crew Resource Management (CRM) is a team building communication process intended to improve patient safety by improving team dynamics. First, to describe implementation of CRM in a Veterans Affair (VA) surgical service. Second, to assess whether staff CRM training is related to improvement in staff perception of a safety climate. Material and Methods Mandatory CRM training was implemented for all surgical service staff at a Veterans Affairs (VA) Hospital at 0 months and at 12 months. Safety climate questionnaires were completed by operating room staff at a baseline, 6 months and 12 months after the initial CRM training. Results Participants reported improvement on all 27 points on the safety climate questionnaire at 6 months compared with the baseline. At 12 months there was sustained improvement in 23 out of the 27 areas. Conclusion This is the first published report about the effect of CRM training on staff perception of a safety climate in a VA surgical service. We demonstrate that CRM training can be successfully implemented wide-spread in a surgical program. Overall, there was improvement in 100% of areas assessed on the safety climate questionnaire at 6 months after CRM training. By one year, this improvement was sustained in 23 out of 27 areas, with the areas of greatest improvement being the performance of briefings, collaboration between nurses and doctors, valuing nursing input, knowledge about patient safety and institutional promotion of a patient safety climate.