Scenario-Based Teamwork Skills Training for Geographically Distributed Teams

Abstract

In this presentation we describe the development of a distributed teamwork skills training program for co-located or distributed teams performing complex, highly interdependent tasks that require overlapping expertise and shared knowledge, flexibility, and the capability for rapid organization and deployment to respond quickly to a changing situation. Our goal is to develop and demonstrate a training approach that uses advanced distance learning technology to provide portable training to small, flexible, quickly reconfigured, rapidly deployed military teams. The program is a web-enabled, scenario-based teamwork skills training program comprised of: information about and examples of teamwork skills; scenario-based training exercises that provide practice in teamwork skills; guidelines for team-conducted exercise debriefings that do not require the presence of a training instructor; and a leader's manual that helps team leaders to conduct web-based training sessions. The version we are currently developing is focused on physicians under training (fellows and residents) working in an academic trauma center.