Which tool is recommended by TeamSTEPPS to enhance situational awareness?

Checklists are specifically designed to enhance situational awareness among team members in healthcare settings. They serve as a structured tool that allows teams to ensure that critical steps in a process are not overlooked, thus promoting clear communication and coordination. By using checklists, team members can systematically verify that necessary actions have been completed, which in turn fosters a shared understanding of the situation at hand. This shared knowledge helps to position team members to anticipate potential challenges and enhance patient safety effectively.

In contrast, other tools like mind maps, flow charts, and performance reviews, while beneficial in their own contexts, do not directly focus on enhancing real-time situational awareness in the same way checklists do. Mind maps capture information and relationships visually but may not be used during immediate team interactions. Flow charts can map processes but do not provide the same real-time verification of tasks that checklists do. Performance reviews analyze past performance but do not aid in current situational awareness. Therefore, checklists are the most effective tool recommended by TeamSTEPPS for achieving a heightened level of situational awareness.