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Article history:
Received 11 September 2013
Received in revised form 13 January 2014
Accepted 30 April 2014
Keywords:
Trauma
Leadership
Resuscitation
Nursing
Emergency
Communication
A B S T R A C T
Background: Effective assessment and resuscitation of trauma patients requires an organised, multidisciplinary team. Literature evaluating leadership roles of nurses in trauma resuscitation and their effect
on team performance is scarce.
Aim: To assess the effect of allocating the most senior nurse as team leader of trauma patient assessment and resuscitation on communication, documentation and perceptions of leadership within an Australian emergency department.
Methods: The study design was a pre-post-test survey of emergency nursing staff (working at resuscitation room level) perceptions of leadership, communication, and documentation before and after the
implementation of a nurse leader role. Patient records were audited focussing on initial resuscitation assessment, treatment, and nursing clinical entry. Descriptive statistical analyses were performed.
Results: Communication trended towards improvement. All (100%) respondents post-test stated they
had a good to excellent understanding of their role, compared to 93.2% pre-study. A decrease (58.1
12.5%) in intimidating personality as a negative aspect of communication. Nursing leadership had a 6.7%
increase in the proportion of those who reported nursing leadership to be good to excellent. Accuracy
of clinical documentation improved (P = 0.025).
Conclusion: Trauma nurse team leaders improve some aspects of communication and leadership. Development of trauma nurse leaders should be encouraged within trauma team training programmes.
Crown Copyright 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
1. Introduction
Traumatic injury accounts for 11% of global mortality and is a
leading cause of disability (Peden et al., 2002). Trauma affects society
on a physical, psychological and economical level (Lyons et al., 2010),
and in Australia injuries are one of the most costly disease groups
(Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, 2010).
AC, KC, and LH conceived and designed the study; AC, KC developed the study
protocol, designed and tested the study instruments; AC, KC and LH supervised
data collection; RS analysed the data; All authors prepared and approved the
manuscript.
* Corresponding author. Tel.: +61 02 9947 9865; fax: +61 02 9947 9879.
E-mail address: alana.clements@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ienj.2014.04.004
1755-599X/Crown Copyright 2014 Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
for simultaneous inputs to address the need for rapid resuscitation, stabilisation and to prioritise ongoing patient care (Georgiou
and Lockey, 2010).
Leadership, documentation (Calleja et al., 2011) and communication are an integral part of trauma team success in major trauma
resuscitation (Capella et al., 2010). As a matter of course, the
assessment and resuscitation of trauma patients at the study site
are initially managed by emergency physicians. A senior nurse with
resuscitation and training experience is allocated to each emergency department (ED) resuscitation room for the shift, and others attend
and assist when required for a resuscitation, such as a major trauma.
When a trauma call is activated, nurses are allocated to either the
airway, breathing and circulation or scribe roles. The resuscitation
nurse was traditionally assigned the role of airway nurse. The airway
nurses ability to maintain a comprehensive overview of their patients treatment and understanding of the denitive care plan, which
they were expected to contribute to, as well as provide a comprehensive clinical handover to other clinicians can be dicult when
focussed on particular tasks, such as airway management. Anecdotally, this lack of awareness of the patient process and plan created
frustration among the nursing staff and could potentially inhibit
patient care. There was also no formal nursing team leader, who
would delegate nursing roles and interventions in conjunction with
the medical team leader.
Nurses are integral to trauma and resuscitation in the ED, and
their contribution through quality clinical care in addition to effective communication, leadership, and team work ultimately enables
quality patient outcomes (Clements and Curtis, 2012). However, literature evaluating the role allocation of nurses in trauma resuscitation and their effect on team performance is scarce. We
hypothesised that allocating the most senior nurse as scribe and enhancing the role to include nursing leadership would improve
nursing documentation, awareness of the patients clinical condition, ongoing patient management plans by facilitating prioritisation
of nursing intervention and overall effective communication among
team members. This role would see the medical trauma team leader
and the nurse team leader work collaboratively in major trauma
resuscitations.
2. Aim
The aim of this study is to assess the effect of allocating the most
senior nurse as nurse team leader and scribe on effective communication, documentation, and perceptions of leadership in major
trauma resuscitations.
3. Methods
A pre-post test design was used employing survey and audit
methods. The study was conducted from March 2011 (pre-test),
implementation (AprilMay 2011) to July 2011 (post-test) at St
George Hospital a major trauma centre in Sydney, Australia. St George
Hospital is the fourth busiest in NSW and treated 66,507 patients
in 2012. Over 1700 trauma patients presented in 2012, and of those
over 350 were severely injured (injury severity score >12) are admitted annually.
3.1. Data collection tools
Two tools were developed to test the hypothesis. A staff survey
to determine perceptions of leadership, effective communication and
awareness of patient plan and a medical record audit form to determine the quality of the documentation.
The survey was developed using an expert group of four trauma
and emergency resuscitation nurse clinicians and nurse academics. Survey questions were developed using the expert group con-
Table 1
Perceptions of leadership and communication in major trauma survey results*.
Question
Pre (n = 31)
n (%)
Post (n = 24)
n (%)
(n = 31)
2 (6.5)
29 (93.5)
(n = 29)
13 (44.8)
16 (55.2)
(n = 31)
2 (6.5)
29 (93.5)
(n = 30)
(n = 24)
0 (0)
24 (100.0)
(n = 21)
8 (38.1)
13 (61.9)
(n = 23)
0 (0.0)
23 (100.0)
(n = 20)
8 (26.7)
22 (73.3)
4 (20.0)
16 (80.0)
18 (58.1)
18 (58.1)
16 (51.6)
11 (35.5)
3 (9.7)
10 (32.3)
19 (61.3)
3 (12.5)
10 (41.7)
19 (79.2)
10 (41.7)
3 (12.5)
11 (45.8)
17 (70.8)
20 (64.5)
23 (74.2)
19 (61.3)
20 (64.5)
20 (64.5)
16 (51.6)
22 (71.0)
(n = 29)
18 (75.0)
18 (75.0)
14 (58.3)
17 (70.8)
18 (75.0)
10 (41.7)
13 (54.2)
(n = 22)
0 (0)
1 (3.5)
11 (37.9)
11 (37.9)
6 (20.7)
0 (0)
2 (9.1)
5 (22.7)
11 (50.0)
4 (18.2)
* Cell sizes were too small (n < 5) to perform McNemars Chi square or Wilcoxon singed-rank tests on the majority of items. No signicant relationships were seen for
those items containing larger cell sizes.
had a comprehensive, real time overview of patient care. The leadership component of the role then enabled the nurse leader to work
in conjunction with the medical team leader, prioritise nursing interventions and facilitate effective team communication. While the
medical team leader has overarching responsibility, the medical and
nurse team leaders work collaboratively. Education was provided
to nurses working at resuscitation level over a 2 month period on
the roles and responsibilities of being a nurse team leader. This education included leadership skills, clinical care, conict management, and graded assertiveness by formal and informal education
methods, regular in-service and mentoring during a resuscitation.
Prior to the implementation of the new role, resuscitation nursing
staff completed an in-service on the denition, purpose and responsibilities involved in the role. During the implementation, the
trauma and emergency nurse consultants and educators mentored
nurses in their new role by using a shadow strategy during a major
trauma resuscitation to provide expert advice and guidance.
3.5. Data analysis
The data were obtained in a de-identied form and only aggregate data are reported. Data were entered into excel and imported
into SPSS Version 20.0 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences
(SPSS), 2010) for analysis. Analysis of the survey results was restricted due to the small variable cell sizes. Due to the condential
and non-identiable nature of data, it is not known if the same participants completed the pre and post questionnaires, although
it is likely that a proportion did. For this reason it has been assumed
that data samples are matched, dependent data and a pre-post analysis was conducted. All binary (yes/no) data were analysed using
McNemars chi square analysis. Ordinal data were analysed using
the Wilcoxon signed-rank test. Medical Record documentation
audits used independent samples and were analysed using
Chi-square analysis.
4. Results
4.1. Survey
In this study, 31 (55%) nurses completed the pre-test survey and
24 the post-test survey (48%). Communication trended towards improvement with the nursing team leader role implementation. There
were 73% (pre) compared to 80% (post) felt that overall communication was good to excellent, and the incidence of very good to excellent nursing communication increased from 58.6% (pre) to 68.2%
(post). All respondents post-test stated they had a good to excellent understanding of their role, compared to 93.2% prior. Post intervention there was a decrease in intimidating personality as a
negative aspect of communication and leadership in major trauma
resuscitation, from 58.1% (n = 18) to 12.5% (n = 3) and a decrease in
no team member identication (from 58% to 42%).
Nursing leadership improved post implementation of the nurse
team leader role. There was a 6.8% decrease in respondents who
felt nursing leadership was poor/average and a 6.7% increase in the
Table 2
Documentation quality pre and post nurse leader role implementation.
Pre
n (%)*
(n = 40)
Post
n (%)*
(n = 40)
Sig (P)
40 (100.0)
37 (92.5)
39 (97.5)
37 (92.5)
37 (92.5)
36 (90.0)
8 (20.0)
30 (78.9)
18 (47.4)
40 (100.0)
36 (90.0)
33 (82.5)
37 (92.5)
19 (47.5)
27 (69.2)
22 (56.4)
38 (95.0)
33 (82.5)
30 (90.9)
29 (87.9)
32 (100.0)
28 (96.6)
19 (59.4)
11 (33.3)
30 (93.8)
33 (97.1)
33 (100.0)
26 (92.9)
18 (52.9)
17 (50.0)
36 (90.0)
34 (85.0)
15 (37.5)
34 (85.0)
33 (82.5)
34 (85.0)
37 (92.5)
33 (82.5)
25 (62.5)
31 (77.5)
36 (94.7)
30 (75.0)
0.009
0.331
0.427
0.599
0.167
0.762
0.025
0.390
0.264
proportion of those who felt nursing leadership was good to excellent. One participant recorded on their survey responses when
asked how aware they were of the patients injuries and plan:
In the leadership and/or scribe role I am very aware. As the airway
nurse variably as you can get tunnel vision in the role or[only] just
hear due to softly spoken voices or just general noise. Another nurse
commented that knowledge of the patients injury and condition
improved with a nurse leader in charge of the trauma and resuscitation: The primary nurse knows about the patients injuries and
treatment plan properly.
Prior to the nurse team leader role, respondents noted that communication was poor and problematic. As one respondent noted:
Often there is simply too much noise and therefore poor communication and interaction. We all need clear direction on any given resus[citation] and effective communication. Participant A.
4.2. Medical records audit
There was an improvement in the recording of the rst blood
pressure being performed manually rather than with an automated device (2(1) = 6.765, P = 0.009). The clinical nursing entry
that describes a summary of the patient assessment, patient progress and plan was improved in terms of the accuracy of injuries
(2(1) = 5.00, P = 0.025). No other signicant changes were seen
(Table 2).
5. Discussion
The results of this study reinforce the evidence that nurses contribute to the effective communication and functioning of the trauma
team. The introduction of a nurse team leader improved perceptions of nursing leadership in our ED. The leadership role required
the nurse to oversee the trauma resuscitation in conjunction with
the medical team leader. The overseeing concept enables the leader
to compile a structured team which is known to work more har-
experience and assertiveness of senior nurses contribute to the effective functioning of the trauma team. The development of trauma
nurse leaders should be encouraged within trauma team training
programmes.
Acknowledgement
The authors acknowledge Kerri Holzhauser for her assistance with
survey design and preliminary analyses and Pauline Calleja for
sharing her trauma medical record audit.
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