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’.