The Huddle: A Daily Dose of Communication

Abstract

Teamwork and communication are critical to ensure safe and quality care for students. A huddle offers the team a daily dedicated time to connect with each other. Huddles are short, regular debriefings designed to engage clinical staff in discussions about existing or emerging safety issues. The huddle was already systematically and uniformly part of the daily practice at Akron Children’s Hospital’s School Health Services daily schedule prior to COVID-19. The pandemic increased the need for the daily huddle. The fluid and frequently changing guidelines, personal protective equipment, and mitigation considerations has increased nursing anxiety and has made regular communication and daily debriefing even more important. Akron Children’s Hospital School Health Services has used huddle for over 10 years with excellent quality, team building, and nurse satisfaction outcomes.

Safety huddles in paediatric intensive care unit: implementation and staff perception in a resource limited setting

“…11,12 It differs from team meetings in the manner that it is a brief daily discussion, focusing on the plan of action for the day ahead. 13,14 Daily huddles can promote optimal patient outcome. 2,[14][15][16] It is the huddle leader's responsibility to keep huddles short, focused and task-oriented, making sure every topic is discussed.…”

Power of daily huddles in COVID-19 pandemic: a QI initiative

“…According to a recently published QI report, daily huddles have been shown to enhance communication among healthcare providers and patient safety responsiveness in an intensive care unit 5. Another similar study, from a hospital where daily huddles were a part of the routine for the last decade, showed that this practice helped them tide the pandemic with ease and bridge gaps in patient care 6…”