By Varsha Varghese

When looking at the diverse society we live in today, it is not a surprise that the importance of being able to successfully work in teams is essential to being an optimal member of society. This is especially true in a healthcare setting. It is important that doctors, nurses, and other necessary medical professionals can work together for the benefit of their patients. If they aren’t able to do this, the results can be grave, ranging from unnecessary procedures to even preventable patient harm. As such, it is to no surprise that training programs for optimal teamwork in healthcare settings have increased rapidly. However, before organizations invest thousands of dollars into time intensive training programs, they want to know how to implement the most strategic leadership training programs they possibly can.

 

Christina Lacerenza, Denise Reyes, Shannon Marlow, and Dr. Eduardo Salas from Rice University and Dana Joseph from University of Central Florida, conducted a meta-analysis of leadership training programs across the country to understand how effective these programs were, and the conditions in which they are the most effective.  After reviewing thousands of studies, the team narrowed down their search to 335 independent studies. The two big questions they asked during the analysis was “How effective are leadership training programs?” and “How should one design, deliver, and implement a leadership program to maximize effectiveness?” (Lacerenza et al., 2016).  They studied the effectiveness by looking at how well it did in four categories: reactions (the attitude of trainees to training programs/instructors), learning (skills trainees obtain from training), transfer (if trainees use skills on the job), and results (benefits from trainees implementing what they learned in the program). Then, the team also investigated 15 moderators of leadership training programs to discover the kinds of programs and qualities of programs that are the most effective. Some of these moderators included attendance policy, spacing effect, internal vs. external trainer, feedback, and location of training.

 

The meta-analysis demonstrates that team training is effective in healthcare (Lacerenza et al., 2016).

 

Moreover, this team training is helpful across all kinds of teams in the healthcare industry. However, there are important aspects of the training that can influence the effectiveness of the training, such as content of the training, attendance, and duration of the program.  If we want to improve our healthcare system and prevent patient harm, team training for healthcare professionals is going to be essential moving forward.

 

Citation:

Lacerenza, C. N., Reyes, D. L., Marlow, S. L., Joseph, D. L., & Salas, E. (2017, July 27). Leadership Training Design, Delivery, and Implementation: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Applied Psychology. Advance online publication. http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/apl0000241