Factors affecting team size and task performance in pediatric trauma resuscitation

Area of Science:

• Emergency Medicine
• Trauma Care
• Healthcare Management

Background:

• Team size in trauma resuscitation often varies with injury severity.
• Both insufficient and excessive personnel can negatively impact patient care.
• Understanding optimal team composition is vital for effective trauma response.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate factors influencing trauma resuscitation team size.
• To determine the relationship between team size and resuscitation task completion.
• To identify optimal team sizes for pediatric trauma resuscitations.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of video-recorded resuscitations for 201 pediatric trauma patients.
• Assessment of bedside and total team size, and completion of 24 resuscitation tasks.
• Linear regression and best-fit curve analysis to correlate patient characteristics, team size, and task completion.

Main Results:

• Average bedside team size was 6.5 members (11.0 total).
• Larger teams were present for high-acuity activations and penetrating injuries.
• Fewer personnel were observed during night shifts and without prearrival notification.
• Task completion peaked with 7 bedside team members (13 total).

Conclusions:

• Trauma resuscitation task completion is nonlinearly associated with team size.
• Optimal team size management is critical, especially for high-acuity, penetrating, or un-notified cases.
• Adjusting team size based on these factors may enhance resuscitation performance.