The Effectiveness of Team Training on Fall Prevention

Purpose:
The purpose was to evaluate the effectiveness of a training curriculum based on TeamSTEPPS® on team members' safety culture, attitude, teamwork perception, and communication as a mediator to reduce falls and injuries.

Background/Significance:
Falls are associated with longer length of stay, higher rates of mortality and morbidity, and higher hospital costs. To date, researchers have not evaluated the effectiveness of team training in the acute care inpatient setting in order to determine if team training is an effective intervention to reduce falls.

Methods:
A longitudinal, quasi-experimental, four-group repeated measures design was used with 34 staff from four similar medical surgical units, two in each of the two community hospitals located in the southeast United States. The intervention group received three 30-minute training sessions, scheduled two months apart, introducing TeamSTEPPS® concepts via brief didactic, custom designed video scenarios, and debriefing as the learning method. The control group received no training and continued with usual practice. Questionnaires, behavioral observations, interviews, and fall data were collected over nine months from both groups located at separate hospitals.

Results:
Teamwork within hospital units (p=.02)and across units (p=.000), feedback and communication about error (p=.008),and teamwork attitudes(p=.03)improved from baseline to nine months.Teamwork perceptions differed between time points (p=.008)and decreased over time. The intervention group increased over time on all measures except teamwork perception which decreased overtime. Observational assessments confirmed improvements with staff implementing fall prevention interventions and communication between caregivers related to a patient's fall risk status for the intervention group compared to the control group. The number of falls and injuries were reduced by over 60% in the intervention group.

Conclusions and Implications for Practice:
Implementation of team training in organizations may be a promising intervention for enhancing teamwork and communication and reducing falls and related injuries. As healthcare professionals strive to provide exceptional care to patients, the importance of teamwork will continue to flourish.