Implementing Daily Team Huddles within a Radiation Therapy Department to Improve Team Communication and Morale

Abstract

Team huddles is a best practice tool that allows preemptive discussions between members of different treatment units to address staffing, workload, patient concerns and recognize team achievements. Given the complexity of care and workload within radiation therapy, our aim was to assess staff preparedness of implementing team huddles within a Radiation Therapy Department. A needs assessment was conducted and included a literature review of team huddles within healthcare, an environmental scan of team huddles in clinical practice, and a staff survey. The survey was adapted from the TeamSTEPPS® questionnaires and included questions on communication, team climate and atmosphere. The survey was used to establish a baseline on the perception of team communication and team morale and also asked for feedback to enable co-design of the huddle process. A recommended huddles checklist from the American Medical Association’s Steps Forward was modified to incorporate feedback from the staff. The huddle checklist was finalized and learning sessions were provided to ensure clarity and comfort with the huddle process before implementation into practice. Team huddles can improve the amount of meaningful communication and ensure the continuity of patient care among the treatment units, ultimately strengthening the intra-professional collaboration culture. It allows staff to review their workload, ensuring adequate time spent with each patient, while emphasizing the value of each team member. Consequently, team huddles can boost morale by serving as an opportunity to recognize and celebrate staff contributions and achievements. Team huddles can be implemented within any intra- or inter-professional team as patient safety is a shared responsibility and requires effective communication for the delivery of high quality care. Identified challenges included: concerns on how to prepare for the huddle and the level of time commitment needed. Our findings showed that only 23.9% (n=11) of staff felt there was sufficient opportunities to formally discuss patient workload between treatment units even though 58.7% (n=27) thought it was important to discuss these differences. In regards to team morale, 54.5% (n=25) of staff agreed that their team experienced high morale. While 65.2% (n=30) of staff felt that it was important to acknowledge and celebrate achievements, only 37% (n= 17) agreed that team members received recognition for individual performance. During the learning sessions, participants were provided the opportunity to seek clarification on the components of the checklist and practice performing a team huddle. After the session, all participants indicated that they felt ready to begin the huddle pilot.