DISCUSSION:
This systematic review explored the impact that a daily huddle can have
on staff job satisfaction, teamwork, and work engagement in healthcare
settings. Most of the studies found that the huddle improved
communication between team members and in turn increased overall job
satisfaction and teamwork. Effective, respectful communication has
impacts on both collegiality, collaboration, and on patient safety
outcomes and is a key pillar of effective teamworking and collective
leadership across a healthcare system.47 Despite a
large amount of data on the association between patient safety outcomes
and huddles, we noted the limited number of studies published on the
sole impact of huddle implementation and its outcomes on the healthcare
team. A wide variety of intervention design and evaluation methods were
used in previous studies in this area.7 As a result,
it is difficult to compare findings across studies. Some key emergent
themes from the studies identified included ‘sense of community’,
‘trust’, and ‘hierarchy’.