Background: Survival after cardiac arrest in hospital environments has in various studies reported to be between 15-39%. In Swedish hospitals 30% of patients who suffer cardiac arrest survive to discharge. There are significant opportunities for improvement in cardiac arrests in hospitals, especially those on general wards. There are few studies of the multidisciplinary team performance regarding both technical and non-technical skills in simulated cardiac arrest on general wards.

Summary of Work: The focus of this study was to observe the multidisciplinary team performance in simulated cardiac arrest on general wards to gain knowledge about existing methods and thus be able to identify areas for improvement. The study design was an exploratory observational study. There were 33 participants in a total of three wards. The simulated cardiac arrest was videotaped, and a patient simulator was used.

Summary of Results: The results suggest that guidelines not always were adhered to cooperation. In the order for the guidelines to work in the multidisciplinary team, background knowledge is required. However, the team leader did not coordinated to the multidisciplinary team work, and did not use effective communication.

Conclusions: Finally, the result suggested suboptimal performance regarding leadership and communication, which in turn affected resources and working environment. The opportunity with simulation is to train together in a situation without any risk for the patients.

Take home Messages: Simulated cardiac arrests will give the opportunity to train the multidisciplinary team technical and non-technical skills.