Resilience in intensive care units: A transactive responsibility model

Intensive care units are high risk settings where reliability of team performance is critical. We interviewed nurses and physicians to understand practices used to achieve resilience in intensive care. A central theme emerged surrounding the concept of transactive responsibility, in contrast to intuitive approaches in organizational design such as clear definition of responsibilities. Through thematic analysis and grounded-theory methodologies we identified precedence of a transactive-responsibility system in a work unit.