Team Huddle Implementation in a General Pediatric Clinic

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Quality Improvement
• Nursing Team Dynamics
• Clinical Communication Strategies

Background:

• Effective teamwork and communication are essential for safe, high-quality patient care.
• Implementing changes to enhance these constructs in established healthcare environments presents significant challenges.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore the impact of a daily team huddle on communication and team functioning in a clinical nursing setting.
• To assess the feasibility of integrating a team huddle into existing healthcare workflows.

Main Methods:

• A quality improvement approach was utilized.
• Staff development educators partnered with clinical nursing staff.
• A daily team huddle was implemented as an intervention.

Main Results:

• The daily team huddle was successfully incorporated into the clinical workflow.
• The intervention demonstrated a positive influence on team communication.
• The huddle positively affected overall team functioning within the clinical area.

Conclusions:

• Daily team huddles are a viable quality improvement strategy for enhancing healthcare team dynamics.
• Integrating huddles into workflow can effectively promote communication and improve team function.
• This approach offers a practical method to address challenges in healthcare teamwork and communication.