Network measures for characterising team adaptation processes

Area of Science:

• Medicine
• Human Factors
• Organizational Psychology

Background:

• Team adaptation is crucial in high-stakes environments like paediatric cardiac surgery.
• Understanding team communication dynamics is key to improving patient outcomes.
• Existing methods for observing teamwork may not fully capture adaptation processes.

Purpose of the Study:

• To advance the conceptualization of team adaptation.
• To apply social network analysis (SNA) measures in a field study.
• To quantify team observation methods in response to changing task demands.

Main Methods:

• Observed 40 paediatric cardiac surgical procedures.
• Trained human factors researchers recorded communication processes.
• Applied social network analysis (SNA) to characterize team communication structures.

Main Results:

• Complex procedures showed more decentralized and flatter communication patterns.
• Critical procedural phases involved higher information sharing and participation.
• SNA quantified team adaptation by identifying shifts in communication structures.

Conclusions:

• Team adaptation in surgery involves dynamic changes in communication patterns.
• Social network analysis provides a quantitative method for observing teamwork.
• Findings have implications for team adaptation theory and improving surgical teamwork.