A new model for understanding teamwork onboard: the shipmate model.

The increasing complexity onboard a ship underline the importance of crews that are able to coordinate and cooperate with each other to facilitate task objectives through a shared understanding of resources (e.g. team members' knowledge, skills and experience), the crew's goals, and the constrains under which they work. Rotation of personnel through 24/7 shift-work schedules and replacements often put crews ina position of having little or no previous history as a team. Findings from 3 studies indicated that unfamiliar teams used less efficient coordination strategies which reduced efficiency and increased levels of stress in situations where team members where experts on task, distributed or unknown to task and environment.Implications for staffing, safety and training are discussed.