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Teamwork and team training in the ICU: Where do the similarities with aviation end?

Tom W Reader^1* and Brian H Cuthbertson²

• * Corresponding author: Tom W Reader t.w.reader@lse.ac.uk

Author Affiliations

¹ Institute of Social Psychology, London School of Economics, Houghton Street, London, UK, WC2A 2AE

² Department of Critical Care Medicine, Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, 2075 Bayview Avenue, Toronto, ON, Canada M4N 3M5

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Critical Care 2011, 15:313 doi:10.1186/cc10353

Published: 30 November 2011

Abstract

The aviation industry has made significant progress in identifying the skills and behaviors that result in effective teamwork. Its conceptualization of teamwork, development of training programs, and design of assessment tools are highly relevant to the intensive care unit (ICU). Team skills are important for maintaining safety in both domains, as multidisciplinary teams must work effectively under highly complex, stressful, and uncertain conditions. However, there are substantial differences in the nature of work and structure of teams in the ICU in comparison with those in aviation. While intensive care medicine may wish to use the advances made by the aviation industry for conceptualizing team skills and implementing team training programs, interventions must be tailored to the highly specific demands of the ICU.