The Program

78Putting the Communication Techniques Together

AS A TRAUMA nurse, The Program teammate Shannon Meyer knows how important communication is. Effective communication often had life-or-death ramifications in her daily life. As the officer in charge of a shock trauma platoon, Shannon had to ensure that her entire platoon knew the importance of effective communication. This process began by clearly assigning and communicating roles and responsibilities before a patient ever came in. For example, one of Shannon’s teammates might have been responsible for the patient’s airway, another would be responsible for medication, another for the crash cart, and so on. Effectively communicating these roles and responsibilities allowed everyone to know exactly what was expected from them before the chaos of a trauma situation hit.

Nurses train to a very high communication standard because they know that the consequences for making a mistake with medication or treatment in a high-stress trauma situation could very well cause the death of a patient. Anytime she was working, Shannon would ensure that she utilized CLAPP while speaking with her team. While working on a trauma patient, the leading nurse might call, “Mike, administer 100mg of ketamine” to sedate the patient. Using closed-loop communication, Mike would respond, “Administering 100mg of ketamine.” The leading nurse would respond, “That’s correct.”

In this situation, too little of the drug would not have the desired effect. Too much could ...