Chapter 9: The Team Approach to Health Care

Vocabulary flashcards covering the core concepts, team structures, communication tools, safety cultures, and decision-making processes outlined in Chapter 9: The Team Approach to Health Care.

Team

A group of clinicians assigned specific roles who work interdependently in a coordinated manner under a designated leader.

Culture of Safety

An EMS organizational environment designed to minimize exposure to injury, infections, illness, or stress, aligned with the key goal of EMS Agenda 2050.

Just Culture

A leadership approach that balances fairness and accountability and encourages people to report errors and near misses, focusing on risk management regarding human error, at-risk behavior, and reckless behavior.

Continuum of Care

The concept of working as a unified team from first patient contact to patient discharge to improve individual and team performance, patient and clinician safety, and patient outcomes.

Community Paramedicine and Mobile Integrated Healthcare (MIH)

Health care provided within the community setting rather than in a physician's office or hospital.

Regular Teams

Teams in which emergency medical technicians (EMTs) consistently interact with the same partner or team, allowing them to perform as a seamless unit.

Temporary Teams

Teams in which EMTs work with clinicians with whom they do not regularly interact or may not even know, which is common in volunteer EMS systems.

Special Teams

Teams possessing the knowledge, skills, equipment, and/or training required to serve a specialized role (such as hazmat, tactical EMS, fire, rescue, or critical care).

Essential Elements of a Group

The five components shared by group members: a common goal, an image of themselves as a "group," a sense of continuity of the group, a set of shared values, and different roles within the group.

Crew Resource Management (CRM)

A process of working together with the team leader to develop and maintain a shared understanding of the emergency situation.

PACE Mnemonic

A crew resource management communication tool representing Probe, Alert, Challenge, and Emergency, used to suggest corrective actions if a harmful action is suspected.

Reason's Swiss Cheese Model

A model of human error and management demonstrating how latent failures (organizational influences, unsafe supervision, preconditions for unsafe acts) and active failures (unsafe acts, failed or absent defenses) align to cause an impact of error.

Closed-Loop Communication

A communication technique in which a team member repeats a message back to the speaker to confirm it was heard, understood, and will be acted upon.

Constructive Intervention

The respectful questioning or correcting of a team member or leader when a harmful action or error is observed or ordered.

Clear Message

Communication delivered calmly, confidently, and concisely so that the information provided or the action requested is readily understood by the listener.

Team Leader

A designated individual (often defined by policy, procedure, or statute) who provides coordination, oversight, centralized decision making, and support, while helping team members work together.

Interdependent Group

A group structure where clinicians work together with shared responsibilities, mutual accountability, and a common goal.

Dependent Group

A group whose members rely heavily on the leader for task assignments and possess limited ability to adapt and deliver critical medical care in an uncontrolled field environment.

Independent Group

A group configuration in which each individual member focuses primarily on the goals of their own individual area.

Transfer of Patient Care Guidelines

Key principles for minimizing handoff errors, including uninterrupted critical care, minimal interference, respectful interaction, common priorities, and use of a common language or system.

Four-Step Process for Assisting with ALS Skills

The standard sequence followed by an EMT assisting an advanced clinician: 1) Preparing the patient, 2) Setting up equipment, 3) Assisting the ALS clinician performing the procedure, and 4) Continuing care.

Clinical Judgment Decision-Making Steps

The systematic clinical process encompassing: gather data (cues), interpret data, decide what the problem is, develop a plan, communicate the plan to the team and take action, and evaluate the effect of the decision.

Stages of the Decision-Making Process

The four sequential phases of EMS decision making: prearrival, arrival, during the call, and after the call.

Decision Traps

Cognitive errors that compromise clinical decision making in EMS, specifically including bias, anchoring, and overconfidence.

Troubleshooting Team Conflicts

Strategies to de-escalate interpersonal disagreements on emergency calls: remember that the patient comes first, do not engage, keep your cool, separate the person from the issue, and choose your battles.