By Sylvia Foley, AJN senior editor
For any given health care program, staff perceptions about how well it works will affect its use and maintenance. This is the case with regard to rapid response teams (RRTs). Nurse leaders’ perceptions of the benefits of RRT teams will influence their support for these teams; and the perceptions of RRT members and end users similarly will influence use. Yet little is known regarding such perceptions.
Nurse researcher Deonni Stolldorf recently conducted a study to learn more. She reports on her findings in one of this month’s Original Research features, “The Benefits of Rapid Response Teams: Exploring Perceptions of Nurse Leaders, Team Members, and End Users.” Here’s a brief summary:
Objective: This study sought to explore and compare the perceptions of nurse leaders, RRT members, and RRT users regarding the benefits of RRTs.
Methods: A qualitative, multiple-case study design was used. Semistructured interviews were conducted with nurse leaders, RRT members, and RRT users at four community hospitals, as part of a larger mixed-methods study examining RRT sustainability.
Results: All participants reported perceiving various ways that RRTs benefit the organization, staff members, and patients. Variations in the benefits perceived were observed between the three participant groups. Nurse leaders’ perceptions tended to focus on macro-level benefits. RRT members emphasized the teaching and learning opportunities that RRTs offer. RRT users focused on the psychological support that RRTs can provide.
Conclusions: Both similarities and differences were found between nurse leaders, RRT members, and RRT users regarding their perceptions. Differences may be indicative of organizations’ information-sharing processes; of variation in the priorities of nurse leaders, RRT members, and RRT users; and of the challenges nurses face daily in their work environments.
Among the favorable comments were these:
- as one RRT user succinctly put it, “We have less codes, less deaths … better patient outcomes, better satisfaction from the families knowing that somebody’s there.”
- an RRT member likened an RRT call to “a live lab,” saying, “It’s not a simulation, it’s the real thing … it is a very rich learning environment.”
Stolldorf called for further research investigating “whether the perceived benefits of RRTs are borne out in actuality, as well as the relationships between the perceived benefits of RRTs and organizational and RRT characteristics.” For more, read the article, which is free online for the next two weeks.
Hi Sylvia,
Thank you for posting this blog about Rapid Response Teams. I totally agree with how beneficial RRT’s can be in a critical situation. Currently at the hospital I am now we are encouraged to activate a rapid response if it is just something in our “gut” that is telling us something is not right with our patient even if we cannot pinpoint what the problem is. Being a nurse with about 2 years of experience there is still a lot for me to learn and it is great knowing that there is that support system in place with more experienced critical care nurses to come assist us and more importantly provide the best care for our patient. I agree with the comment, “We have less codes, less deaths … better patient outcomes, better satisfaction from the families knowing that somebody’s there.” Rapid response teams provide me with a sense of assurance and let me believe I can provide the best outcome for my patient’s.
RRTs are an awesome and very useful part of the medical / hospital team! Minutes are spared when they matter as much as seconds matter. FTR occurs less and outcomes are increasingly positive with more experience and utilization!
With under 2 years experience as a nurse, I agree with the comment “it is a very rich learning environment” only if debriefing is done afterward (even within the next 48 hours). That is not always done at my facility, so, I often feel as if I don’t get learned concepts reinforced or completely understand rationale for certain interventions.