Crisis Management in Acute Care Settings

This book addresses all issues relevant to error prevention and safe practice in the acute and emergency health-care setting. It begins with the basic principles of human behavior and decision making and then partitions into three sections where the individual, the team, and the organizational influences within the health-care system are discussed in greater depth. Case reports and proven strategies help to ground psychological theory in daily practice. This book has emerged from a long-standing cooperation between clinicians and psychologists. Blending the strengths of both professions into a readily accessible text has created a book which will hopefully help both physicians and non-physicians to better understand the principles of human behavior and decision making in critical situations and in turn enable them to provide safer treatment. Unsuspected medical crisis and emergency situations may be managed more effectively and an increased awareness of contributing factors may help to avoid errors from the outset. TOC:Basic Principles: Error, Complexity, and Human Behavior: The Human Factors: errors and Skills.-The Challenge of Acute Healthcare.-The Nature of Error.-The Psychology of Human Action. Individual Factors of Behavior: Human Perception: The Way We See Things.-Information Processiong and Mental Models: World Views.-Goals and Plans: Turning Points for Success.-Attention: In the focus of Consciousness.-Stress.-Strategies for Action: Ways to Achieve Good Decisions. The Team: The Key to Success: Teamwork.-Speech is Golden: Communication.-Leadership. The Organization: Organizations and Human Error.-Reliable Acute Care Medicine.