Abstract
While healthcare should not be compared to aviation or indeed other high reliability
organisations (HROs), many lessons, attitudes, and transferable practices can be applied
and, more importantly, adapted from them to improve patient safety and team morale.
The team brief before any interventional list is one such process that can have a
significant effect on the delivery and safety of patient care and effective team working.
Due to NHS pressures and the perception by some in healthcare that the time taken
to conduct a full team briefing has little importance, it can sometimes be rushed
or regarded as a ‘tick box’ process that delays a list. However, when used appropriately,
the briefing is a chance to lower authority gradients and thereby improve patient
safety. It also reduces the likelihood of medical errors, builds and improves situational
awareness by considering various ‘what-if’ scenarios and how they will be dealt with,
and considers wider issues including potential distractions. An important outcome
is its effect on team morale through empowerment, and it is an opportunity for learning.
In this article, which has been written following a unique opportunity to observe
a full team brief on an Airbus A380 flight deck, we consider how, through the thorough
use of checklists, briefings can be used to best advantage for interventional teams.
We raise the question ‘would you engage differently with the briefing if your own
life or procedure depended on it?’
Keywords
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Article info
Publication history
Published online: November 09, 2022
Accepted:
November 1,
2022
Identification
Copyright
© 2022 The British Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
