Observational teamwork assessment for surgery: construct validation with expert versus novice raters.

Objective: To test the construct validity of the Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery (OTAS) tool.

Summary Background Data: Poor teamwork in surgical teams has been implicated in adverse events to patients. The OTAS is a tool that assesses teamwork in real time for the entire surgical team.

Distracting communications in the operating theatre.

Rationale And Aims: Research suggests that there are problems of communication effectiveness in surgery. Here we describe the content, initiators and recipients of communications that intrude or interfere with individual surgical cases. We also consider the level at which the surgical team and its team members are distracted by these case-irrelevant communications (CICs).

Observational teamwork assessment for surgery (OTAS): refinement and application in urological surgery.

Background: Teamwork in surgical teams is at the forefront of good practice guidelines and empirical research as an important aspect of safe surgery. We have developed a comprehensive assessment for teamwork in surgery-the Observational Teamwork Assessment for Surgery (OTAS)-and we have tested it for general surgical procedures. The aim of the research reported here was to extend the assessment to urology procedures.

The complexity of measuring interprofessional teamwork in the operating theatre.

Surgery depends on interprofessional teamwork, which is becoming increasingly specialized. If surgery is to become a highly reliable system, it must adapt and professionals must learn from, and share, tested models of interprofessional teamwork. Trainers also need valid measures of teamwork to assess individual and team performance.

Observational assessment of surgical teamwork: a feasibility study.

Background: Teamwork is fundamental to effective surgery, yet there are currently no measures of teamwork to guide training, evaluate team interventions or assess the impact of teamwork on outcomes. We report the first steps in the development of an observational assessment of teamwork and preliminary findings.

Method: We observed 50 operations in general surgery from a single operating theater using a measure of teamwork specifically developed for use in the operating theater.

Teamwork in the operating theatre: cohesion or confusion?

Rationale: The aim of the research that we report here was to empirically assess the cohesiveness of the multidisciplinary operating theatre (OT) team.

Method: We used concepts from the team performance and team mental models literature to assess OT professionals' perceptions of their teamwork, the structure of their teams and their respective roles within them and their teams' performance.

Results: Team structure: OT professionals would welcome a change from the current structure of the team, although there was no agreement on what that structure is.