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. 2020 Nov 5;28(2):222–231. doi: 10.1093/jamia/ocaa198

Table 4.

Team situational awareness facilitators

Topic Participant Quote
Patient expertise YC05 For example, like we let the doc know that [patient’s] having a difficult time eating and drinking and whatnot, he's feeling a little grumpy with the medicines…And then they can change it to make him more comfortable. For example they had a feeding tube in him to do the flush-out process and they said we got an option to keep the feeding tube in and then feed him the nutrient supplements that way or have him eat on his own, and [Patient] really wanted to be able to eat on his own and get that tube removed because he would be more comfortable, less in pain, a number of different reasons. They were like yeah, let's do the right thing for him, that he feels comfortable with.
Observation AP10 They sit here and they tell each other what’s been going on during the day, what kind of medications I’m on, what the doctors have said, what’s in some of the charts, what’s in some of the X-rays, what the plan is for the rest of the night. They do it every day, so some of the stuff that I might not have listened to and know, I get more information listening to them, because they’ve talked to the doctors or the doctors have talked to them and they may have to pass the information onto each shift
Repetition YC05 I feel more like they just really want us to know what's going on, and even though they're repeating what the other one said, they repeat it with another little twist, like a little bit extra information from their side, their specialty… So even though they're talking about the same thing, they have different approaches and then different information from their side of the experience.
Empathy and comfort YC14 They’ve been so great, and actually this is the only place where they talked to her like she’s an actual person here, she’s not just sidelined. And so it’s really cool. She gets to have a lot of say and they totally listen to her. She has a say in what’s going on. Like with the IV, she was super freaked about getting it flushed again because it hurt and they totally worked with her. So they were able to keep it open a different way.
AP03 Sometimes you feel like—it could be a doctor visit in their office, I feel like they want to hurry, hurry, and then I totally avoid asking questions. But I feel comfortable with them, they really seem very concerned, then I don't feel rude and I want to ask more questions, like what does that mean? What is that pill's going to do to me? So when they use medical terms and I don't understand, I don't feel bad to ask them questions, if I don't understand it, they can explain what does that mean.