Teaching teamwork and patient safety to future health care providers
UT Southwestern’s Team FIRST training program expands since its launch in 2019
In 2019, UT Southwestern piloted an educational quality enhancement plan, Team FIRST, to improve patient safety by teaching interprofessional teamwork competencies to all health care students.
Since then, more than 3,800 students from UT Southwestern Medical School and the School of Health Professions have completed interactive modules in communication, care coordination, and teamwork challenges. These skills are taught in certain contexts, such as during simulated patient “handovers,” with the goal to prevent medical errors and patient harm. A handover is a potential high-risk situation that occurs when a patient is transitioned from one clinician or team to another.
More than 300 faculty members from every clinical department have played key roles in designing, implementing, and teaching this longitudinal, interprofessional curriculum. To celebrate the first five years of this work, Team FIRST organizers hosted an IMPACT Awards Ceremony to recognize the contributions of these faculty members – many of whom have served as Team FIRST leads and scholars. Sherry Huang, M.D., Vice Provost and Senior Associate Dean for Education, presented the awards and shared her vision for Team FIRST going forward.
Jon Hopkins, Educational Coordinator Quality Enhancement Plan: Team FIRST, expressed gratitude to the faculty. “We could not do this without their help, and their guidance has been instrumental in making Team FIRST a success,” Mr. Hopkins said.
Skills taught through simulation
Team FIRST prepares students to communicate, work together, and manage group challenges effectively with various professionals as they enter residency programs and professional practice, said Philip E. Greilich, M.D, M.Sc., Professor of Anesthesiology & Pain Management and Director of the Quality Enhancement Plan.
The program’s modules are built on a framework of 10 competencies: recognizing the criticality of teamwork, creating a psychologically safe environment, using structured communication, using closed-loop communication, asking clarifying questions, sharing unique information, optimizing team mental models, building mutual trust, monitoring for mutual performance, and debriefing/reflection.
Through simulation-based training and guided discovery in multiple settings, the program provides learners opportunities to practice and receive feedback from trained instructors using commonly occurring clinical events, added Mr. Hopkins.
“Working collaboratively as a team leads to safer patient care, which turns into better patient outcomes,” he said.
All medical students are required to complete the program, which includes five modules and multiple clerkships during Module 4: Teamwork Clinical Series. For students in the School of Health Professions, involvement includes participation in two interprofessional modules and integration of the remaining curriculum into existing educational programming.
Team FIRST: Where it all began and its future
The training prepares students to handle various situations. For example, in one scenario, the student is handing off a patient just as another patient needs emergency medical attention (coding) down the hall. The student is expected to address the patient who is coding, then return to the patient they were handing off, Mr. Hopkins said.
“We want to know how the student would respond in such a case,” he said. “The goal is to encourage communication – no matter how hectic the situation is.”
Third-year medical student Ryan Anaya said the program gave him early clinical experience and the unique opportunity to meet daily with faculty role models.
“I learned effective communication and leadership skills as I watched my mentor lead weekly clinical and research meetings with colleagues of different professional backgrounds,” he said.
Program expands to faculty
Team FIRST was developed in response to an institutional commitment to team-based care as a component of its reaccreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges (SACSCOC), an institutional accreditor of quality assurance in higher education.
“It is my hope that a growing number of faculty from every department will gain training and experience in teaching teamwork competencies in the clinical learning environment,” Dr. Greilich said. “The Team FIRST approach is to make multimodal ‘just-in-time’ training and feedback more accessible to busy clinicians.”
Going forward, goals of the program are continued growth and increased capacity to provide foundational teamwork training, so students are “team ready” upon graduation.
“In the next five years, Team FIRST will continue to spread this curriculum to students from all schools on campus, delivering it in ways that are appropriate, acceptable, and feasible for a given environment,” Dr. Greilich said. “Team FIRST’s implementation strategy includes a robust faculty development program that provides teamwork training and experience needed to support our institution’s high reliability journey.”
Team FIRST Awards
In November, the Team FIRST IMPACT Awards Ceremony brought together institutional leadership and faculty to recognize excellence in advancing teamwork education strategy. Dr. Huang shared her vision for the future of this program and presented 10 IMPACT Awards. Congratulations to the award recipients in the following categories:
Leadership: Thomas Dalton, M.D., Associate Professor of Internal Medicine
Innovation & Creativity: Kavita Joshi, M.D., Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Assessment: Neethu Chandran, M.D., Associate Professor of Anesthesiology & Pain Management
Feedback & Debriefing: Mary McHugh, M.D., Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Scholarship & Academic Contribution: Meghan Michael, M.D., Associate Professor of Anesthesiology & Pain Management
Problem Solving & Quality Improvement: Jessica Hernandez, M.D., Assistant Professor of Emergency Medicine
Recruitment & Development: Olivia Hoffman, M.D., Assistant Professor of Pediatrics
Scholar-in-Residence: Shannon Paquette, M.D.
Rising Star: Hina Mehta, M.D., Assistant Professor of Internal Medicine
Overall Impact: David Klocko, M.P.A.S, D.M.Sc., Associate Professor of Physician Assistant Studies
