Glossary of Terms and Acronyms
The team at the Center for Simulation and Research at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center provides the following glossary of terms:
- Active Error
- Errors that occur everyday, at the front line (sharp end); effects are felt immediately
- Adverse Event
- Injury resulting from a medical intervention
- Briefing
- A team huddle- allows the team to identify roles, responsibilities and goals prior to a caring for a patient-particularly in an acute or critical setting
- Call Out
- Team member alerts the team when an ordered procedure is completed
- Closed-Loop Communication
- Exchange of information between team members, in which team members verify orders, medications, and procedures
- Debriefing
- A post performance evaluation of team performance and opportunity to identify strengths, weaknesses and systems issues
- Full Scale Simulation
- A full representation of the clinical care environment including realistic contextual cues, team members and manikins
- Halo Effect
- Deference given to someone due to his/her position or reputation
- Haptic
- Refers to all the physical sensors that provide a sense of touch at the skin level and force feedback information from muscles and joints
- Human Factors
- The discipline or science of studying the interaction between humans and systems and technology. The term covers all biomedical and psychological considerations
- Latent Error
- Errors in the design, organization, training, maintenance that may lead to errors. Effects may lie dormant or unnoticed in system for a period of time
- Latent Threats
- Aspects of the organization that are not always easily identifiable, but predispose to commission of errors
- Manikin (Mannequin)
- Full or partial body representation of a patient for practice
- Moulage
- Simulation of injury or pathology
- Non-technical Skills
- Communication and teamwork skills
- Pinch
- Intuitive feeling that something may be wrong
- Readback
- An order is given; it is written down and read back. It is then acknowledged by giver as correct
- SBAR
- Acronym for "Situation", "Background", "Assessment", and "Recommendation". It allows a clinical team member to easily and quickly describe the clinical presentation of a patient and make a recommendation for future action. It is a component of effective communication between one healthcare provider and another
- Scenario
- An initial set of conditions and time line of significant events used to replicate or recreate a clinical situation in order to achieve exercise objectives
- Serious Safety Event (SSE)
- Is a medical error or deviation from the standard of care resulting in serious harm
- Simulator
- A setting, device, computer program, or system that recreates essential elements and cues; to encourage experiential learning related to particular educational objectives
- Situational Awareness
- An individuals perception of reality as related to the actual situation
- Step Back
- Dramatic gesture to get immediate attention of team, allowing for reorganization or refocusing of goals and priorities
- Target Fixation
- Focus on a single task to the exclusion of other input
- Task Trainer
- A simulator designed to practice specific clinical skills
- Team Communication
- The exchange of information between team members that is satisfactorily transmitted, received, and acted upon
- Technical Skills
- The actual performance of patient care treatments, i.e. Algorithm of care
- Threats
- Factors that increase the likelihood of an error
- Violation
- Conscious failure to adhere to procedures/regulations
- Virtual Simulation
- A simulation involving real people operating simulated systems. Virtual simulations inject a human in a central role by exercising motor control skills (e.g., medical interventions), decision skills, or communication skill
