When patients are admitted to the Emergency department after a traumatic incident, team communication and information flow are critical and time sensitive. In the first 30 minutes after arriving, hospital staff have to make a life-impacting decision every 72 seconds.
Additionally, team members arrive on the scene at different times and need to be brought up to speed immediately.
In these stressful emergency situations, how might we communicate important information about the patient's condition, and familiarise the ever changing staff with each other and their roles so they can quickly and effectively get to work?
We asked a team of Masters students from NCAD to look at methods of communication and information flow in the 'trauma bay’ - the dedicated space where patients are managed when they first arrive after a major traumatic incident.
The students interviewed staff and observed simulation training sessions to understand the workflow and interactions during trauma situations. They also conducted observational studies in the current Emergency department and carried out their own simulations to test out new ideas. This research led to a number of key insights
.svg)
.png)
.png)
.png)
