Learning from the multidisciplinary team: advancing patient care through collaboration.

Training for doctors, and other healthcare workers, has traditionally focussed on developing the knowledge and technical skills relevant to individual specialties. There has been an assumption that once trained in this way, we will be able to work easily and effectively in teams with other professionals. Multidisciplinary working is now a normal pattern of healthcare delivery and teamwork is taught as part of current curricula. Interdisciplinary learning is becoming more common, with medical students, nursing students and other professions allied to medicine learning together during their training. Healthcare staff who are already qualified have not had the benefit of being taught the particular skills needed to work well as part of diverse teams, nor given the skills to identify and overcome barriers to effective teamwork. We all need to develop these skills to help our patients get the best care from the teams looking after them.

Impact of the Surviving Sepsis Campaign on the recognition and management of severe sepsis in the emergency department: are we failing?

BACKGROUND: Severe sepsis/septic shock (SS/SS) has a high mortality. The past decade lays witness to a concerted international effort to tackle this problem through the Surviving Sepsis Campaign (SSC). However, bundle delivery remains problematic. In 2009, the College of Emergency Medicine (CEM) set out guidelines for the management of SS/SS. These set the standards for this audit. OBJECTIVES: To assess the recognition and management of patients presenting with SS/SS across three emergency departments (EDs) within the West Midlands. METHODS: Data were collected retrospectively over a 3-month period. Patients in the ED with a diagnostic code of, or presenting complaint suggestive of, sepsis, had their scanned notes assessed for evidence of SS/SS. Compliance with the CEM guidelines, and evidence of referral to the intensive care staff was evaluated. RESULTS: 255 patients with SS/SS were identified. Of these, 17% (44/255) were documented as septic by ED staff. The CEM standard of care was received in 41% of those with a documented diagnosis of severe sepsis in the ED, and 23% of patients with SS/SS overall. 89% of patients received the 'treatment' aspects of care: oxygen, IV antibiotics and IV fluids. Twelve patients with a raised lactate level and normal blood pressure (cryptic shock) failed to receive fluid resuscitation. 71% of patients with SS/SS had no documented discussion or consideration of referral to the intensive care unit. CONCLUSIONS: The SSC has had some impact; however, there is still a long way to go. It is assumed that the picture is similar in EDs across the UK and recommendations are made based on these local findings.