Building shared situational awareness in surgery through distributed dialog.

Area of Science:

• Medical Communication
• Surgical Team Dynamics
• Situational Awareness

Background:

• Inadequate information sharing in surgery compromises team situational awareness.
• This study examines clinical decision dialog and its impact on shared awareness in surgical settings.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate communication strategies used by surgical teams.
• To understand how these strategies affect shared situational awareness during operations.

Main Methods:

• Fieldwork and thematic analysis of 19 semistructured interviews.
• Participants included anesthesia, surgery, and nursing staff from a metropolitan hospital.

Main Results:

• Identified "coordinating decisions in surgery" as a key domain.
• Themes included synchronizing actions, sharing knowledge, and contingency planning.

Conclusions:

• "Self-talk", closed-loop communication, and "overhearing" enhance shared situational awareness.
• Tunneling and fixating on single aspects of the situation negatively impact team awareness.