Different views on emergency team management according to polish medical professionals

Background: There is still an insufficient data on how medical professionals perceive verbal pressure made by team leaders. The aim of our study was to examine if there are any differences in team leaders’ management ways between different workplaces and professions. Moreover, we decided to check if leaders and members have similar opinion on this issue. Methods: The observational quantitative study was based on online survey. It was sent to polish medical professionals working in Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care Unit (AICU), Emergency Department (ED) and prehospital emergency care. Incidence of verbal pressure (rushing), shouts, curses as well as if they perform debriefing and other parameters were checked. Results: Team leaders and members agree on the incidence of rushing made by leaders while they do not confess accordingly the incidence of curses and shouts (leaders underestimate these phenomena). EDs’ leaders rate their team management skills (0–10 scale) statistically lower than prehospital leaders (5.40±1.59 versus 6.80±1.65; P=0.01). Moreover, physicians as team leaders claim to rush others more often than paramedic team leaders (2.93±2.51 versus 1.69±1.96; P=0.02). Prehospital team members experience rushing, shouts and curses statistically less often in comparison with hospital team members. Furthermore, prehospital team members evaluate their members’ management skills higher than hospital team members do. Chi-square analysis reveals that prehospital medical professionals claim that they perform debriefing always/usually more often than hospital (AICU and ED combined) ones. Conclusions: Prehospital team members and leaders are more likely to be consistent in their teams’ work evaluation. Paramedics as team leaders rarely rush others, shout or curse in comparison with hospital team leaders (physicians). There is a potential positive influence of debriefing which is performed more often by prehospital teams. Shouts and curses made by physicians are reported with higher incidence by their team members than by leaders.