The perioperative Team Brief: A patient safety initiative or another tick-box exercise?

The World Health Organization Surgical Safety Checklist has been the subject of many professional discussions following its introduction in 2008. Since the addition of the Team Brief and Debrief in 2010 and the acceptance of the Five Steps to Safer Surgery as the gold standard, compliance has steadily improved (as audited by Care Quality Commission Inspections). This review of the literature therefore examined the perioperative Team Brief and identified gaps in knowledge. Evidence appears to suggest that whilst compliance is good in quantitative terms, there may be inconsistencies within the quality of Team Briefs from organisation to organisation and surgeon to surgeon. Concluding further research is required to establish what an effective Team Brief looks, sounds and feels like to all involved.