Language in Action – A study of what makes effective communication in prehospital resuscitation teams

Who’s working on it:
PhD – Ernisa Marzuki (University of Edinburgh), Prof Holly Branigan (PPLS, University of Edinburgh), Dr Hannah Rohde (PPLS, University of Edinburgh), Dr Chris Cummins (PPLS, University of Edinburgh), Dr Gareth Clegg (Resuscitation Research Group, Edinburgh Medical School, University of Edinburgh).

Funders:

Background:
There is a great deal of current interest in the optimisation of teamwork during out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) resuscitation. The Resuscitation Council UK recognises that “Resuscitation requires a system to be in place to achieve the best possible chance of survival. The system requires technical and non-technical skills (teamwork, situational awareness, leadership, decision making)” in the 2015 resuscitation guidelines, and places emphasis on effective communication. This is worthy of note because essentially, all domains in existing non-technical skills measurement tools (e.g. ANTS, TEAM, OSCAR, CARDIOTEAM, etc.) contain communicative acts.

Research aims:

· To assess the types of communication and communication strategies associated with high quality non-technical skills (NTS) in paramedic teams in order to enhance team training.
· Helping paramedic team members to be more aware of effective language use and how this may improve performance.

Updates/preliminary findings: