Abstract

A very frequently used phrase, crisis resource management (CRM) or team resource management (TRM) still seems to be, for many of us in the medical field, a great unknown. The lecture starts by exploring the history of the CRM concept and its theoretical foundations.

Human performance limitations are addressed and demonstrated to the audience by means of interactive exercises.

The 15 CRM principles, as defined by David Gaba and Marcus Rall (Rall M, Gaba DM Howard SK Dieckmann, P. Human Performance and Patient Safety. In Miller RC (Ed): Miller’s Anesthesia 8th edition, 2014, Elsevier/Churchill Livingstone:  Philadelphia) are then introduced and some of them examined more deeply. This is accomplished by addressing real-life situations, as known by every clinician, and examining the CRM principles involved.

Summing up, the CRM concept is embedded into clinical work as a tool to maintain awareness for critical situations, to avoid their development into catastrophes and, if caught in the middle of a crisis, to mitigate its effects.

Additional Information

This presentation was given at "Striving Towards the High Reliability Organisation", Fourth Annual Simulation Conference, Homerton University Hospital, London UK on 11 December 2014.