Communication Tools
This structured framework stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation.
What is SBAR?
This 4-step framework (Describe, Express, Suggest, Consequences) helps team members address interpersonal conflict constructively.
What is the DESC Script?
Laminated pocket reference cards, badge cards, or structured checklists that assist clinicians during high-stress or rare events are examples of this type of tool.
What is a cognitive aid?
Asking a patient or family member to explain in their own words what they understood about a care plan is known as this technique.
What is the Teach-Back method?
This beverage is the fuel of the modern office, often sparking intense debates over which roast is best.
These three phrases make up the graded escalation tool used when a team member senses a safety issue ("I am Concerned, I am Uncomfortable, This is a Safety Issue").
What is CUS?
This culture exists when team members feel safe to take risks, ask questions, admit mistakes, and voice concerns without fear of negative consequences.
What is Psychological Safety?
Sending an email using this typography style is universally interpreted as shouting.
What is ALL CAPS?
The degree to which individuals have the capacity to obtain, process, and understand basic health information needed to make appropriate health decisions.
What is Health Literacy?
When a clinician’s working memory is overwhelmed by too many simultaneous clinical tasks, it creates this type of cognitive challenge.
What is High Cognitive Load?
This closed-loop communication technique involves the sender initiating a message, the receiver repeating it back, and the sender confirming correctness.
What is a Check-Back?
The practice of asserting a safety concern at least twice to ensure it has been heard by the decision-maker is known as this rule.
What is the Two-Challenge Rule?
The STEP tool for monitoring situational awareness assesses Status of the Patient, Team Members, Environment, and this fourth element.
What is Progress toward Goal?
This classic Friday morning treat is usually brought in a flat cardboard box and disappears within ten minutes.
What are donuts?
Using jargon, acronyms, or discipline-specific shorthand when communicating with cross-disciplinary team members or patients creates this barrier.
What is a Language/Semantic Barrier?
This strategy is used to communicate critical information quickly to the entire team during an emergency or fast-moving clinical situation (e.g., calling out vital signs).
What is a Call-Out?
This household appliance is notorious for causing small fires or bad smells when office snacks are left unattended for too long.
What is the toaster (or toaster oven)?
This process involves error reduction by actively monitoring actions of team members to catch human error before it reaches the patient.
What is Cross-Monitoring (or "watching each other's back")?
The NURSE acronym (Naming, Understanding, Respecting, Supporting, Exploring) is designed to respond effectively to patient and family emotions with this core quality.
What is Empathy?
The psychological phenomenon where individuals in a group conform to a consensus rather than voice dissenting opinions or safety concerns.
What is Groupthink?
According to workplace etiquette, this is the maximum number of days allowed to respond to a non-urgent internal email.
What is 24 hours (or one business day)?
Unaddressed organizational or professional dynamics that prevent junior staff from speaking up to senior clinicians are referred to as this barrier.
What is Steep Hierarchy (or Authority Gradient)?
An organizational model that balances a non-punitive environment for system failures with individual accountability for reckless behavior is called this.
What is a Just Culture?
This collaborative process ensures patients, families, and clinicians weigh risks, benefits, and personal values together when choosing a care pathway.
What is Shared Decision-Making?
A brief, structured meeting held before a procedure or shift to establish roles, anticipate risks, and align expectations is known as this.
A brief, structured meeting held before a procedure or shift to establish roles, anticipate risks, and align expectations is known as this.