Leadership in different resuscitation situations

Summary There is empirical evidence that leadership has a positive influence on resuscitation performance. Nevertheless, shortcomings in establishing and enacting leadership are amongst the most important complaints after resuscitations. Leadership behaviours during resuscitation have to be adapted to task and coordination requirements that change during the resuscitation process. We suggest that different leadership behaviours are important in the initiation and the maintenance phase of resuscitation. The main leadership challenges in the initiation phase are (1) to establish a leadership structure and (2) to integrate arriving group members while at the same time, the resuscitation has to be started; as well as (3) to swiftly pass on the lead to an arriving, more competent team member, if necessary. The main leadership challenges in the maintenance phase are (4) to assure that the global perspective is maintained and that the resuscitation guidelines are properly followed; (5) this includes encouraging seamless cooperation to avoid unnecessary interruptions. Leaders in resuscitation not only need to build a behavioural repertoire, but also need to be aware that leadership needs to be task-contingent to respond to specific cooperation requirements at different times in the process.