By Sarveshwari Singh
On the first day of the Marseille East Summer Camp, Kathy Pischke-Winn and Dr. Joe Halbach organized a game using dominoes. It really showed how miscommunication in health care can happen so easily and how simple steps can prevent it.
We assembled in groups of three — one person role-played a doctor, another a nurse, and the other an administrator. The physician sat with his/her back to the nurse and instructed the nurse how to arrange the dominos according to a prescribed pattern. The nurse couldn’t ask any questions. Not surprisingly, the nurse didn’t arrange them correctly.
This scenario brought home how communication disconnects among clinicians happens so often in health care, and it underscores why a leading cause of errors is failure in communication. Also, informal rules can deter students and residents from asking questions, which can lead to a… Continue reading