title: Tools for Assessment of Communication Skills of Hospital Action Teams: A Systematic Review.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Hospital action teams comprise interdisciplinary health care providers working simultaneously to treat critically ill patients. Assessments designed to evaluate communication effectiveness or "nontechnical" performance of these teams are essential to minimize medical errors and improve team productivity. Although multiple communication tools are available, the characteristics and psychometric validity of these instruments have yet to be systematically compared.
  
  
  OBJECTIVE
  To identify assessments used to evaluate the communication or "nontechnical" performance of hospital action teams and summarize evidence to develop and validate these instruments.
  
  
  METHODS
  A literature search was conducted using MEDLINE/PubMed database to identify original articles related to assessment of communication skills in teams working in acute care medicine not exclusive to emergency room, operating room, prehospital air and ground transport, or code blue/rapid response resuscitations.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Ten communication assessment tools were identified. Six tools (60%) were designed to measure communication performance of the whole team, whereas 4 tools (40%) were created to assess individual team member's communication skills. Regardless of the type of analysis, the most commonly assessed behavior domains were Leadership, Teamwork, Communication, and Situation awareness. Only 1 of 16 articles describing a particular communication assessment tool reported all the validation criteria, other authors underreported efforts to validate their instruments.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  A number of tools designed to measure the communication or "nontechnical" performance of hospital action teams are available. Unfortunately, limited reported validity evidence may hamper the utility of these tools in actual clinical practice until further validation studies are performed.
authors: Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors: Shady A
authors: SA
authors: Rehim
authors: Department of Surgery, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors: Stephanie
authors: S
authors: DeMoor
authors: University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors: Richard
authors: R
authors: Olmsted
authors: University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas.
authors: Daniel L
authors: DL
authors: Dent
authors: Division of Trauma, University of Texas Health Science Center San Antonio, San Antonio, Texas. Electronic address: raley@uthscsa.edu.
authors: Jessica
authors: J
authors: Parker-Raley
mesh_terms: D003422:Critical Care / Q000458:organization & administration*; D016638:Critical Illness / Q000628:therapy; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D017063:Outcome Assessment, Health Care; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000458:organization & administration*
keywords: Interpersonal and Communication Skills; Patient Care; Practice-Based Learning and Improvement; communication; resuscitation; teamwork; tools; trauma; validity