Concept of Crew Resource Management Training

The purpose of this essay is to provide brief information about the process of crew resource management training in a healthcare organization. The essay evaluates review of different literatures on the concept of crew resource management training in an organization. In today’s environment, it has become the need to initiate the process of crew resource management in every organization of any industry. With the introduction of technology and diverse resources, it has become important for the companies to train the employees to use these resources properly for the better functioning of the organization (O’Connor, O’Dea, and Keogh 2013). Especially in the given case of healthcare and aviation industry, the companies use diverse resources for initiating their business activities, for which it is important for the employees to adequately make use of such resources so as to ensure the safety of the customers of the company. The process of crew resource management is basically a part of the air travel companies as in that industry it is much needed by the management to train the employees with the equipment to achieve safe flight operations. Further, more explanation about this process and its use in healthcare as well as the aviation industry is discussed below:

The crew resource management is a concept that was designed specially to train the employees present in the aviation industry. According to Oriol 2006, the concept of CRM involves three main rudiments that are Indoctrination and awareness training, feedback, practice and recurrent training and lastly continuing reinforcement. The purpose of this type of training is to help the employees to adequately make use of the resources and equipment available with them and use them wisely. Aviation industry can be regarded as one of the most unsafe industry as a minute mistake of the employees can lead to major problems for the customers and other stakeholders. Resulting to which the company started facing the need to train the employees appropriately so that they can eliminate the chance of accidents (Gandhi, and Tandon 2017). Talking about the history of CRM, it should be noted that from the beginning of the flying careers of the people, the companies have faced the need of pilot training programs so as to help the employees with the technical aspects of flying and improve the problem-solving capabilities. However, in the viewpoint of Travis Maynard, Marshall, and Dean 2012, events of accidents were still facing an increasing rate due to which it was encountered that very few flight crews have the efficient knowledge about the technical aspects of flying. Resulting to which, the priorities ultimately shifted from operating independently in the multi-crew environment to a problem-solving approach using all the available resources. Further, the process of CRM refers to the effective use of accessible assets; these resources are then divided into four groups that are people, fuel/time, machinery and statistics.  The process of CRM training is defined to enhance the machine factor by adding it with the interactive activities. These activities include team building and maintenance, problem-solving, information transfer, dealing with the automated system, decision making and maintaining situational awareness. This training is also not limited to multi-crew pilots but to all the other employees of the aviation industry (Wauben, Lange, and Goossens 2012).

History of CRM Training

As this type of training was majorly defined by, the institutes present in the aviation industry so all the features of this process are formed with respect to the aviation industry only. This term was initially termed as Cockpit resource management and developed by NASA psychologist John Lauber in the year 1979. The concept of CRM in the aviation industry is used to provide synergy, with the use of this type of training the companies to aim to combine the effort of all the employees and collectively exceed the sum of individuals through their actions (Goldfarb, Nash, and Pizzi 2005). The CRM training process in an aviation industry aims to increase the crew synergy that would be mathematically equivalent to 1+1=3. The CRM training helped the authorities present in the aviation industry to fix major areas that caused issues for the customers present in the industry. Communication and interpersonal skills associated with good communication practices were included in the training module. For the aviation industry, it is important for the management to understand the problems of customers and solve them properly (Kapur, et. al., 2015).

From the viewpoint of Helmreich, and Merritt, 2017 while flying, the customers are the responsibility of crew management and the whole company, in response to which it was important for the company to train the employees which good relationship management process. Further, another skill is situational awareness, under the CRM training management appropriately developed the skills of situational awareness employees. It refers to the ability of the employees to recognize the complex situation present inside the cockpit and outside the aircraft (Jensen 2017). Usually, complex situation arises while flying, so at this time, the employees do not have guidance and assistance of their seniors resulting to which they fail to overcome the on-going or upcoming circumstance. Therefore, the CRM training helps the management to train the employees to handle the situation successfully and proactively take measures for the same. This type of training eliminates 80% of the risks associated with the aviation industry.

Coming up to the major part of the essay that is the use of crew resource management training concept in the healthcare industry. Just like the aviation industry, there are numerous other industries that require the use of CRM training process to train the employees effectively; the healthcare industry is one them. The healthcare industry is just like the aviation industry that constantly works with the threat to the lives of many individuals connected with them (CAO 2018). Further, it should be noted that with the success of the use of this training in the aviation industry, many other industries started looking forward to this concept so as to eliminate complexities from their businesses as well. Initially, according to MacLeod 2017, the healthcare industry of U.S. adopted the facility of this training in their business so as to specifically initiate infection prevention. Like, the central line bundle of best practices involves using the checklist while injecting any vaccine in a person. Unlike the aviation industry, the spectator examines the person with the checklist is regarded as an employee with lower rank as compared to the employee who inserts the vaccine. So, with the use of this training the team building activity is initiated in the organization for the better communication when the elements of a bundle are not executed (Chan, et. al., 2016).

Importance of CRM Training in Aviation industry

The need for CRM practices in the healthcare industry can be looked after as a need of the business to operate effectively in the market. The success of this training in aviation industry gave confidence to many other companies present in other industries to make use of this type of training and resolve the issues associated with the employees and other resources as well (Moffatt-Bruce, et. al., 2017). In response to this training, a division of U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and Agency for Healthcare Quality and Research (AHRQ) also initiated this training to employees present in healthcare industry based on the principles associated with the aviation industry. This training was given a name that is TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety).

In the current era, this program is being applied in hospitals and primary care centers for the better assistance of the employees. Just like the aviation industry, this training system was used in the healthcare industry to recover the patient safety by briefing the healthcare workers with better information to organize their activities (Clay?Williams, et. al., 2014). However, opposing the purpose of CRM training process used in both the industries, it should be noted that apart from improving the safety of customers, the aviation industry had many other reasons to make use of this type of training that discussed above, however the healthcare industry had only one aim that is to increase patient safety and eliminate accidents. One thing that remained constant in both the industries is that is the success rate of this type of training in the organizations (Flin, R. and Maran 2015).

Adding in the concept of application of crew resource management training concept in the healthcare sector, it should be noted that the Sexton Study and much other analysis suggested that the safety-related that have been implied in the aviation industry might also be helpful in the healthcare industry as well. Through the study, it was identified that there are several dynamic decision making healthcare environments that are labor room and deliver, operating room and the emergency room. Further, the fact appeared that the healthcare organizations cannot directly use the CRM training process as it require tailoring of the approaches and the objectives to use the training as well (Kuy, and Romero 2017). The anesthesiology segment has 65-70% of safety issues with them that attributes most in the part of human blunder. In response to which the Anesthesia Patient Safety Foundation developed the Anesthesia Crisis Resource Management by molding the CRM identified by the aviation industry. This training in the healthcare organizations was demonstrated through didactic instructions, re-enactment of the aviation disasters, videos of mishap in the healthcare industry and further debriefing and training sessions. This type of training was initiated in the healthcare industry using books and guides as well. The books include various events and cases under which the employees might feel pressurize and perform the actions wrong. Resulting in which, the ACRM approach was formed to successfully help the healthcare employees to perform well in the external environment (Helmreich, and Merritt 2017).

Use of CRM Training in Healthcare Industry

Helmreich and Schaefer who suggested the ways to use this theory in the operating room to increase the team’s performance and bind the actions of all the employees together also modeled the CRM framework. This method suggested was to input the performance of the team to achieve the essential organizational functions and achieve desirable outcomes that are to maintain the well-being of the patients. Apart from this, another way in which, the CRM training concept was applied in the healthcare industry was through MedTeams behavior based teamwork system. This training process was identified by Dynamic Research Corporation and sponsored by Army Research Laboratory (Haller, and Stoelwinder 2017). This training concept was formed to adopt the research in team growth and training from the military helicopter aviation to emergency medicines. Therefore, with the help of this process, specific applications were established for the emergency department care and the labor and delivery units. This system was established with the use of courses and various assessment tools as well. The Emergency Team Coordination Course (ETCC) was defined that included five team dimensions and goals. These were to maintain the structure and climate of the team, enhance communication skills among team members, initiate planning and problem-solving approach, improve team building and lastly facilitate workload management as well (Shappell, et. al., 2017).

The MedTeams approach was applied by healthcare organizations in order to eliminate mishaps and oversee the error before they occur and mitigate the actual errors as well. The MedTeams approach was formed using four principles that were to initiate team responsibility towards patients, believe in clinical fallibility, monitoring the peer, generation of awareness among team members for the patient status and institutional resources.

Peer monitoring was the fundamental component proposed by MedTeams for the training of CRM in healthcare. Under this process, it becomes important for the employees to check on their team’s members activities apart from their individual responsibilities. The teamwork check cycle begins when each of the team members monitors the situation given to them and at the same time cross-monitor the actions of other teammates. Therefore, in case any team member detects an error while monitoring the actions, then they need to intervene and share the piece of information with the defaulter employee (Kemper, et. al., 2016). Thus, in this way, with the help of CRM training process, the employees reduce the events of mishap in the healthcare center. In order to make use of the CRM training concept in a better way, the ACRM was then modeled in recent years for training the neonatologists and pediatricians. This type of training was coined as NeoSim that combined traditional methods of training with the review of different literatures with simulations. Under this type of training, the emphasis on the teaching of behavioral teamwork skills along with technical content was regarded as the CRM intervention in the healthcare study (Schwartz, et. al., 2017).

The above-mentioned application of the CRM training concept of aviation industry used in healthcare industry explained ways in which the healthcare organizations present in the society utilized this concept for their field. Furthermore, the evidence for the success CRM training in medical can be clearly seen through the growth of the healthcare organizations.  Although rigorous evaluations challenged the design of the process, however, the companies still managed to make use of the training concept for the betterment of the patients. The CRM concept helped the organizations in assessing and determining the technical as well as the behavioral performance of the employees. Before the use of this type of training, the results of crisis management showed mixed results in the knowledge part and implementation part of the employees. However, the average score test for the growth rate of the employees significantly changed after the training. With the help of this type of training, the organization started binding the work of employees and preventing the occurrence of mishap as well. The open-ended questions present in the training session helped the management in attaining a better understanding of the negative circumstances and its consequences as well (Goldfarb, Nash, and Pizzi 2005).

Infection Prevention through CRM Training

Post application and success of the implementation of the CRM concept in the healthcare industry, the fact cannot be denied that the healthcare industry should learn to initiate safety management from the aviation industry. Despite the delay made by the aviation companies in holding flights, the company has successfully mitigated and eliminated risks and chances of accidents while flying. Further, it should be noted that it is need of both the industries to make use of the CRM techniques and eliminate fatalities so as to ensure the going concern of companies in both the industries, as if the accident rate would increase in the industries then no person would visit them. The aviation industry shows an excellent blueprint for addressing the safety concern and offering valuable lessons as well (Rowley, and Bryant 2017).

Conclusion

It cannot be said that the healthcare industry has never faced mishaps, but it has assembled all its activities together and got back super quick. The airlines’ industry has considerably improved its system in managing the employee engagement, the team developing, knowledgeable learning and lastly safety protocol as well. While on the other hand, the healthcare industry is moving ahead with a slower pace, the healthcare industry needs to super active in decreasing the fatality rate and increasing the satisfaction level of the employees (Moffatt-Bruce, et. al., 2017). The major reason that is holding the healthcare industry backward (if compared to the aviation industry) is incompetency of the management to train the employees effectively and provide them skills of CRM practices within them. The aviation industry properly curb the casualties because the employees have the efficient skills to mitigate the issues and develop situational awareness for the same while the employees present in the healthcare industry fail to do so. Thus, as a part of mitigating the issues, it is important for the healthcare organizations to become learning organizations as the human factor of the industry need a massive improvement. The employees present in this industry also need to understand the latent and active factors and then initiate action accordingly. Further, in the healthcare industry, training only focuses on technical proficiency of the employees while the CRM training initiated in aviation industry includes non-technical skills as well and skills are trained by means of stimulator training (Kemper, et. al., 2016).

Source: (Kapur, et. al., 2015)

Thus, in the limelight of the above-mentioned events, the fact should be noted that the practice of crew resource management has become an essential need of the industries present worldwide. The above-mentioned report explained the use of CRM training concept in the healthcare industry. This concept was initially defined by the aviation industry and then adopted by various industries including the healthcare sector. The aviation industry successfully makes use of this process of training in training the employees with the ways to mitigate the mishaps and increase customer satisfaction as well. The healthcare industry is also successfully using the training concept by molding the concept but the organizations present in this industry fail to successfully produce the outcomes of the event. The report examines the comparison between the training strategies initiated by both the industries and success rate present with them. The healthcare industry is applying the ACRM training concept by focusing on peer monitoring and knowledgeable training. The need of use of crew resource management training concept is the same in both the industries but the application is different.

Significance of Situational Awareness

References

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