TASK COMPLEXITY IN EMERGENCY MEDICAL-CARE AND ITS IMPLICATIONS FOR TEAM COORDINATION

To elicit components of task complexity in emergency medical care, a s tudy was conducted to contrast one medical procedure with two levels o f task urgency in trauma patient resuscitation. Videotapes of actual r esuscitation were reviewed to extract task characteristics of the proc edure. Two levels of urgency were compared in the following areas: pat ient status, technical difficulty of tasks, the amount of available pa tient monitoring information, and the pace of work. Four components of task complexity in emergency medical care were identified: multiple a nd concurrent tasks, uncertainty, changing plans, and compressed work procedures and high workload. These components of task complexity pose challenges to team functions and can lead to problems in team coordin ation, such as conflicts in goals, tasks, and access to the patient. T raining to increase explicit communications and improvements in the de sign of work procedures are necessary in order to meet the challenges of task complexity.