Team based performance – key for good airway management in children

Team based model in airway management in children

Abstract

Background and purpose: Good quality healthcare is unimaginable without proper patient safety. Which is why securing the airway is undoubtedly the most important lifesaving skill any prehospital and hospital emergency medical service provider possesses, including the anaesthesiologists. Children underlying a procedure needing anaesthesia, especially toddlers and neonates, have a high risk of critical airway incidents. Unfortunately, delayed management of compromised paediatric airway still causes significant perioperative morbidity and mortality.

Materials and methods: MEDLINE is used to search the English language literature for articles using the following search terms: “human factors”, “paediatric airway”, “preoperative assessment”, “preparation for airway management”, “difficult intubation”, “difficult airway prediction in children”, “paediatric emergency”, “oxygenation”, “patient safety”.

Results: Managing critical/accidental situations with good coordination and cooperation by applying the training received through simulations.

Conclusions: The human being may err, and technical skills training is not enough to ensure the desired outcomes. There is a need to develop nontechnical skills such as teamwork capabilities. Leadership and teamwork play a vital role in increasing the capacity of paediatric anaesthesiology educators and training the paediatric anaesthesia workforce, essential for patient safety and patient outcomes in airway management during anaesthesia, perioperative and postoperative care.