Saving lives: a meta-analysis of team training in healthcare.

Hughes AM, Gregory ME, Joseph DL, et al. J Appl Psychol. 2016 Jun 16; [Epub ahead of print].

In teamwork training, multidisciplinary health care teams learn to respond effectively to acute situations. Prior studies of team training show improvements in safety culture, but its effect on patient outcomes has been mixed. This meta-analysis of 129 studies found that team training consistently led to enhanced participant satisfaction and skills. These improvements were present across different health care settings and team composition. Investigators also determined that team training positively affects length of stay and mortality, although they caution that few of the primary studies analyzed included these patient outcomes. The authors suggest that team training should be widely implemented and that further studies should evaluate its effect on length of stay, patient satisfaction, and mortality. A PSNet interviewdiscussed how team training from other industries can be applied to health care.

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