Observational Measures of Team Process and Performance in Healthcare

Abstract

This symposium presents four research approaches that demonstrate a set of diverse tools and techniques for the study of team process and performance. Observational analysis is a cornerstone of human factors research, and analysis at the team level requires approaches tailored to the special considerations of group processes. In exploring these issues, we first present the advantages of video data as a medium in an ergonomic and task analysis of brief, risky beneficial procedures, and comparisons to traditional observational methodologies are made. Next, both qualitative and quantitative methods are used for describing notable events and performing content analysis with a software tool (“RATE”) that facilitates the coding and analysis of video records of surgical teams. Third, we explore a technique that uses the communication patterns of trauma teams as a measure of team processes, structure and function. Lastly, we present a validated behavioral marking system (“ANTS”) for individual anesthetists within the context of a team that includes the dimensions of team work, task management, situation awareness and decision making. These four techniques examine a range of valuable analytic tools demonstrated through empirical research.