Promoting teamwork: an event-based approach to simulation-based teamwork training for emergency medicine residents

The growing complexity of patient care requires that emergency physicians (EPs) master not only knowledge and procedural skills, but also the ability to effectively communicate with patients and other care providers and to coordinate patient care activities. EPs must become good team players, and consequently an emergency medicine (EM) residency program must systematically train these skills. However, because teamwork-related competencies are relatively new considerations in health care, there is a gap in the methods available to accomplish this goal. This article outlines how teamwork training for residents can be accomplished by employing simulation-based training (SBT) techniques and contributes tools and strategies for designing structured learning experiences and measurement tools that are explicitly linked to targeted teamwork competencies and learning objectives. An event-based method is described and illustrative examples of scenario design and measurement tools are provided.