Trauma Team Dynamics

The majority of medical errors are non-technical in nature, stemming from faulty decision-making, asynchronous information gathering, lack of situational awareness and ineffective communication and team leadership. Reviews of accidents from other high-risk industries, including the airline industry, have had similar findings. This led the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the airline industry to develop crew (now crisis) resource management (CRM) training. These team-based training strategies address “non-technical” skills to counteract human error and improve team and patient safety. Medicine has begun adapting this training especially within the realms of anesthesia and critical care. Trauma surgery has been slower to utilize this work; however, simulation-based training is increasing in popularity.