title: The effect of a nurse team leader on communication and leadership in major trauma resuscitations.
abstract: 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.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  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).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Trauma nurse team leaders improve some aspects of communication and leadership. Development of trauma nurse leaders should be encouraged within trauma team training programmes.
authors.affiliation: Trauma Service, St George Hospital, NSW, Australia. Electronic address: alana.clements@sesiahs.health.nsw.gov.au.
authors.forename: Alana
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Clements
authors.affiliation: Trauma Service, St George Hospital, NSW, Australia; Sydney Nursing School, University of Sydney, Australia; The George Institute for Global Health, Australia; Faculty of Medicine, St George Clinical School, University of NSW, Australia.
authors.forename: Kate
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Curtis
authors.affiliation: South Eastern Sydney Local Health District, Australia.
authors.forename: Leanne
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Horvat
authors.affiliation: Centre for Health Practice Innovation, School of Nursing and Midwifery, Griffith Health Institute, Griffith University, Australia.
authors.forename: Ramon Z
authors.initials: RZ
authors.lastname: Shaban
mesh_terms: D003142:Communication; D003625:Data Collection; D004636:Emergency Service, Hospital; D006801:Humans; D007857:Leadership; D024802:Nurse's Role / Q000523:psychology*; D009746:Nursing, Team / Q000379:methods*; D012151:Resuscitation / Q000379:methods / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology; D014947:Wounds and Injuries / Q000451:nursing* / Q000523:psychology
keywords: Communication; Emergency; Leadership; Nursing; Resuscitation; Trauma