Expanding the Team: Practical Uses of TeamSTEPPS for Non-Clinical Team Members

February 13, 2019

Truly successful health care teams are those that involve the whole staff and not just those with a clinical background. The health care team involves not just physicians, nurses, and other clinical staff but administrators, quality improvement professionals, risk management, environmental services, dietary, IT, and patients and families as well as others. All are vital members of the team. But how do you teach TeamSTEPPS tools to non-clinical staff? Aren’t they just for improving performance and patient safety? The answer is no. TeamSTEPPS tools are practical “life skills” that can be used whether you are treating a patient, interacting with co-workers in meetings, or answering emails. In fact, a great way to ensure sustainability of TeamSTEPPS is to embed it into non-clinical situations and processes.

This webinar introduces TeamSTEPPS concepts and tools to facilitate better teamwork, communication, and leadership from the non-clinical perspective to increase staff satisfaction, help make meetings more meaningful and efficient, and ensure all team members are more comfortable bringing up concerns. The American Hospital Association TeamSTEPPS faculty discusses how they’ve taught and modified the TeamSTEPPS tools non-clinically.

Learning Objectives:

• Describe the need to teach all staff, clinical and non-clinical alike, TeamSTEPPS tools from the non-clinical perspective
• Discuss how implementing TeamSTEPPS into non-clinical situations and processes can improve staff satisfaction, communication, and teamwork
• Identify ways to teach and modify the TeamSTEPPS tools non-clinically