Crew resource management training in healthcare: a systematic review of intervention design, training conditions and evaluation

OBJECTIVES: Crew resource management (CRM) training formats have become a popular method to increase patient safety by consideration of the role that human factors play in healthcare delivery. The purposes of this review were to identify what is subsumed under the label of CRM in a healthcare context and to determine how such training is delivered and evaluated. DESIGN: Systematic review of published literature. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, PsycINFO and ERIC were searched through 8 October 2018. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA FOR SELECTING STUDIES: Individually constructed interventions for healthcare staff that were labelled as CRM training, or described as based on CRM principles or on aviation-derived human factors training. Only studies reporting both an intervention and results were included. DATA EXTRACTION AND SYNTHESIS: The studies were examined and coded for relevant passages. Characteristics regarding intervention design, training conditions and evaluation methods were analysed and summarised both qualitatively and quantitatively. RESULTS: Sixty-one interventions were included. 48% did not explain any keyword of their CRM intervention to a reproducible detail. Operating room teams and surgery, emergency medicine, intensive care unit staff and anaesthesiology came in contact most with a majority of the CRM interventions delivered in a 1-day or half-day format. Trainer qualification is reported seldomly. Evaluation methods and levels display strong variation. CONCLUSIONS: Critical topics were identified for the CRM training community and include the following: the need to agree on common terms and definitions for CRM in healthcare, standards of good practice for reporting CRM interventions and their effects, as well as the need for more research to establish non-educational criteria for success in the implementation of CRM in healthcare organisations.