Multidisciplinary simulation training for perioperative teams: An integrative review

Background: The perioperative environment is a high-risk and complex area and the provision of safe, high-quality surgical care requires a multifaceted approach provided by multidisciplinary health care teams. However, it is reported that the multidisciplinary nature of perioperative teams can present barriers to patient safety through ineffective teamwork, ineffective collaboration and/ or ineffective communication. Multidisciplinary simulation training creates realistic situations in safe environments to allow perioperative teams to improve teamwork and communication alongside the technical skills needed to manage emergency situations. This integrative review critically examines and reports the effects of multidisciplinary simulation training on perioperative teams and highlights the actual and potential advantages and disadvantages of such training.

Method: A structured integrative literature review process was undertaken yielding 14 key articles that were critically appraised and examined for emergent ‘themes’.

Results: Multidisciplinary simulation training improved communication, teamwork, teamwork behaviours and teamwork attitudes between multidisciplinary perioperative team members. Overall, improvements in communication and teamwork correlated with improvements in perioperative patient safety. Despite the numerous benefits of multidisciplinary simulation training there are notable barriers to the implementation of such training programs. Multidisciplinary simulation training can be costly to set up and time consuming to facilitate. However, overall increases in patient safety offset the cost of simulation training and time-based barriers can be reduced by running simulation training in conjunction with existing education programs.

Conclusion: Multidisciplinary simulation training improved communication and teamwork among perioperative teams and this method of training is recommended overall within perioperative units. However, there were notable gaps within the literature, and further research involving multidisciplinary perioperative teams within Australian perioperative units should be conducted to gain a greater insight into the presence of multidisciplinary simulation training and the effects of such training.