• Ezequiel Fernandez Castelao, Sebastian G Russo, Martin Riethmüller, and Margarete Boos.
• Department of Social and Communication Psychology, Georg-August-University Göttingen, Germany. e.fernandezcastelao@uni-goettingen.de
• J Crit Care. 2013 Aug 1; 28 (4): 504-21.

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to identify and evaluate to what extent the literature on team coordination during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) empirically confirms its positive effect on clinically relevant medical outcome.Material And MethodsA systematic literature search in PubMed, MEDLINE, PsycINFO and CENTRAL databases was performed for articles published in the last 30 years.ResultsA total of 63 articles were included in the review. Planning, leadership, and communication as the three main interlinked coordination mechanisms were found to have effect on several CPR performance markers. A psychological theory-based integrative model was expanded upon to explain linkages between the three coordination mechanisms.ConclusionsPlanning is an essential element of leadership behavior and is primarily accomplished by a designated team leader. Communication affects medical performance, serving as the vehicle for the transmission of information and directions between team members. Our findings also suggest teams providing CPR must continuously verbalize their coordination plan in order to effectively structure allocation of subtasks and optimize success.Copyright © 2013 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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