TeamSTEPPS for Healthcare Quality and Patient Safety Training Course

Course overview

Communication failures, unclear authority gradients, incomplete handoffs and unchallenged safety concerns are recurring contributors to preventable harm, delays and staff frustration. Healthcare teams need a shared operating system for speaking up, coordinating under pressure and recovering when plans change. This five-day TeamSTEPPS course equips participants to apply evidence-based teamwork practices across wards, theatres, emergency departments, outpatient services and care transitions.

Participants work through the TeamSTEPPS 3.0 framework: team structure; communication; leadership; situation monitoring; and mutual support. They practise SBAR, call-outs, check-backs, closed-loop communication, briefs, huddles, debriefs, handoffs, CUS statements, the Two-Challenge Rule and DESC scripts. The course also covers psychological safety, cross-monitoring, escalation pathways, patient and family engagement, and the selection of process and outcome measures for a local safety intervention.

Instructor-led teaching is paired with realistic healthcare scenarios, including deteriorating-patient escalation, medication reconciliation, perioperative briefings and high-risk handoffs. Participants rehearse structured communication in role-play, analyse breakdowns using TeamSTEPPS tools and receive facilitated feedback on their language and decisions. Each participant leaves with a TeamSTEPPS implementation charter for a defined service area, including a problem statement, stakeholder map, selected tools, training plan, measurement approach and 90-day action plan.

The course suits clinical and operational professionals who must coordinate care across professional boundaries, as well as managers responsible for quality, workforce capability and patient-safety improvement. It is suitable for organisations introducing TeamSTEPPS or seeking to move from isolated communication training to consistent team-based safety practices.

Course objectives

By the end of this course, participants will be able to:

• Apply the TeamSTEPPS 3.0 framework to diagnose teamwork failures in a defined clinical workflow
• Deliver SBAR escalation messages that state the safety concern, clinical assessment and requested action
• Use call-outs, check-backs and closed-loop communication during time-critical care coordination
• Conduct structured briefs, huddles and debriefs using TeamSTEPPS leadership tools
• Escalate unresolved safety concerns using CUS statements, the Two-Challenge Rule and an agreed chain of command
• Perform I-PASS handoffs that communicate illness severity, action lists, contingency plans and receiver synthesis
• Create a TeamSTEPPS implementation charter with stakeholders, tool selection, measures and a 90-day rollout plan
• Evaluate a local teamwork intervention using process, balancing and patient-safety outcome measures

Benefits of attending

Target competencies

Who should attend

• Clinical Team Leaders — who need consistent communication and escalation practices across multidisciplinary teams
• Nurse Managers and Charge Nurses — who coordinate shift teams, staffing changes and deteriorating-patient responses
• Patient Safety and Quality Improvement Professionals — who design, measure and sustain safety interventions
• Physicians and Advanced Practice Clinicians — who lead clinical decisions and must reduce hierarchy-related communication barriers
• Allied Health and Pharmacy Leaders — who manage high-risk handoffs and interprofessional care coordination
• Healthcare Operations Managers — who need to embed teamwork behaviours into service standards and improvement plans

Requirements and prerequisites

This is a foundation-to-intermediate course and does not require previous TeamSTEPPS training. Participants should have a working understanding of their organisation's clinical escalation process, incident-reporting route and the care pathway in which they work. Experience in a healthcare, social care or healthcare-support setting is strongly recommended because exercises use realistic multidisciplinary scenarios. Familiarity with basic quality concepts such as adverse events, near misses and audit measures is helpful but not assumed. No statistical software, formal improvement qualification or prior simulation-training experience is required.

Training methodology

The programme combines focused instructor-led modules with facilitated analysis of healthcare incidents, communication demonstrations and repeated skills rehearsal. Participants use TeamSTEPPS scripts in scenarios involving clinical deterioration, medication discrepancies, theatre preparation and shift handoff, rotating through speaker, receiver and observer roles. Small groups design briefs, huddles and escalation pathways for a selected service challenge, then use observation checklists to give behavioural feedback. On day five, participants convert their work into an implementation charter and receive peer and instructor challenge on feasibility, measures and adoption barriers.

Course outline

Day 1: TeamSTEPPS foundations and safety culture

• Patient-safety events and the human factors behind communication breakdowns
• AHRQ TeamSTEPPS 3.0 principles and the five teamwork competencies
• Team structure, role clarity and shared mental models
• Psychological safety, authority gradients and speaking-up barriers
• High-reliability behaviours in multidisciplinary healthcare teams
• Teamwork event analysis using contributory-factor mapping
• Selecting a local workflow for TeamSTEPPS application

Workshop: Participants analyse a deteriorating-patient case, identify the teamwork failures and produce a TeamSTEPPS problem statement for their own service area.

Day 2: Structured communication and safe handoffs

• SBAR message construction for routine and urgent escalation
• Call-outs and check-backs for closed-loop communication
• Read-backs, verbal orders and confirmation of critical information
• I-PASS handoff elements and receiver synthesis
• Standardising shift, transfer and discharge handoffs
• Communication with patients and families as team members
• Documentation prompts and handoff observation criteria

Workshop: Participants conduct a simulated transfer-of-care handoff and produce an SBAR and I-PASS communication template tailored to a local pathway.

Day 3: Leadership, coordination and situation monitoring

• Briefs for role allocation, risk anticipation and contingency planning
• Huddles for reprioritisation during changing clinical conditions
• Debriefs for learning after events, shifts and procedures
• STEP situation-monitoring tool: status, team members, environment and progress
• Shared mental models and task-status displays
• Cross-monitoring and workload distribution
• WHO Surgical Safety Checklist links to TeamSTEPPS behaviours

Workshop: Teams run a pre-procedure brief and mid-event huddle for a changing surgical scenario, producing a completed brief checklist and escalation actions.

Day 4: Mutual support, conflict management and escalation

• Task assistance and workload redistribution under pressure
• CUS statements for communicating safety concerns
• The Two-Challenge Rule and assertive follow-through
• DESC scripts for resolving interpersonal and process conflict
• Advocacy and inquiry techniques for challenging assumptions
• Chain-of-command escalation and documentation expectations
• Coaching and feedback using TeamSTEPPS behavioural markers

Workshop: Participants role-play an unresolved medication-safety concern and produce a documented escalation script using CUS, advocacy-inquiry and the Two-Challenge Rule.

Day 5: Implementation, measurement and sustainability

• Assessing readiness for a TeamSTEPPS intervention
• Stakeholder mapping and clinical champion roles
• Selecting priority tools for a defined care process
• Building a microlearning and practice plan for staff adoption
• Process measures for briefs, handoffs and escalation behaviours
• Balancing measures, safety outcomes and run-chart review
• Sustainability controls: observation, feedback, refresher training and governance

Workshop: Participants present and refine a 90-day TeamSTEPPS implementation charter containing their target workflow, measures, owners, training actions and review cadence.

Tools & standards covered

AHRQ TeamSTEPPS 3.0, SBAR, I-PASS Handoff Bundle, WHO Surgical Safety Checklist

A typical training day

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in the East Africa Time zone, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

How you can take this course

Certification

Participants who complete the full five days receive the Skillset Development Certificate of Completion, stating the course title, course code, dates and delivery format — suitable for professional-development records and employer reimbursement.

Frequently asked questions