What it means
Its full name is Team Strategies & Tools to Enhance Performance & Patient Safety. The US Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Department of Defense built it to improve communication and teamwork. Its tools include SBAR for reporting, the check-back (repeating to confirm), call-outs, briefs and huddles, and CUS, a three-step way to voice a worry: say you are Concerned, then that you are Uncomfortable, then that it is a Safety issue.
For the nurse
Any team member, whatever their role, can and should speak up with CUS or the two-challenge rule when they see a risk to the client.
At a glance
| Also written | TeamSTEPPS |
|---|
Related terms
handoff report
The passing of information and responsibility for a client's care from one nurse or team to another.
read-back
Writing down a spoken order or test result and reading it back to the person who gave it, so they can confirm it is right.