Interprofessional preoperative briefing enhances surgical teamwork satisfaction and decrease operative time: A comparative study in abdominal operation

Abstract

Background: Preoperative briefing of interprofessional surgical team (Surgeon group, Anesthetic group and Operating nurse group) shows improvement of surgical teamwork satisfaction. However, preoperative briefing protocol is not well set in surgical practice in Thailand. Objective: To study the interprofessional preoperative briefing effectiveness in term of teamwork satisfaction score and operative time loss due to preventable causes. Material and Method: Prospective experimental trial was done before and after implementation of preoperative briefing in abdominal operation using visual analog score questionnaire and operative records. Paired t-test was analyzed in this study. Results: During March-October 2009, data analysis of 35 surgical staffs (Surgeon group 11 staffs, Anesthetic group 10 staffs, Operating nurse group 14 staffs) showed 19 of 35 staffs (54.29%) had increase individual satisfaction score but average satisfaction score to three interprofessional surgical teamwork increased 0.50 from 10 which was no statistical significant. The preventable operative time loss decreased from 8.6 to 5.3 minutes per 60 minutes operative time. Analysis of the satisfaction score to preoperative briefing protocol was 7.53 from 10 scores and the individual staff opinion to continue preoperative briefing protocol were 29 from 35 staffs (82.86%). Conclusion: Interprofessional preoperative briefing increased satisfaction level of surgical teamwork and decreased operative time due to preventable causes. Most of surgical staff agreed to continue preoperative briefing project for patient benefit.