Effectiveness of an Educational Intervention With High-Fidelity Clinical Simulation to Improve Attitudes Toward Teamwork Among Health Professionals.

BACKGROUND

Failures in teamwork are a common reason for adverse medical events. The goals of this study are to evaluate attitudes toward teamwork among an interprofessional group of health professionals and to analyze the effectiveness of an educational intervention with high-fidelity clinical simulation to improve these attitudes.

METHOD

An educational intervention was developed that used a 6-hour session that included three simulated clinical cases. The Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale was used for assessment. Mean difference before and after the intervention was calculated with the Wilcoxon test.

RESULTS

Positive attitude toward teamwork after completion of the training activities was measured. The health care professionals who showed the most positive attitude toward teamwork were physicians (93.92, = 6.58) and resident physicians (95.01, = 6.33). The greatest increase was observed among orderlies ( < .001) and nursing assistants ( < .001).

CONCLUSION

The use of clinical simulation for interprofessional training of health care professionals showed a positive effect on attitudes toward teamwork. .