Table 1

Observational categories of data collected during patient reviews

Coding category	Definition for observational coding	Purpose of measurement
Verbal communications during the patient review by the senior trainee doctor, junior trainee doctor or senior nurse	No of times the senior trainee, junior trainee or senior nurse verbally communicated during (and relating to) the patient review. Only the frequencies of contributions, and not the lengths, were recorded.	To capture contributions to the care discussion by trainees and nurses. Contributions by senior doctors were not captured since they accounted for a majority of verbalisations during the patient review.
Verbal prompts for input in the assessment (by a senior doctor) from other team members	No of times a senior doctor prompted either the team, or individuals in the team, for some form of input (eg, patient physiological information, underlying pathology of patients, opinions, potential care plans)	To capture prompts from the senior doctor to encourage team member contribution during the patient review
Start/finish time	Time at which the patient review begins and ends	Control variable. To calculate the average number of team process behaviours (eg, verbal contributions) shown during patient reviews. Also used as a control variable for measuring the length of each patient review.
Team size	No of team members present at the beginning of the patient review	Control variable. Increased numbers of team members are expected to reduce the number of times individuals communicate during the round.
Senior doctor	Individual senior doctor leading the round	Control variable. To control for potential differences in the leadership style of consultants during the patient review.
Interruptions	An interruption by an individual or event not related to the patient review	Control variable. To control for potential disruptions to the patient review.

For the purposes of analysis, the number of observations for each behavioural category is divided by the number of minutes taken for each patient review.