Introduction
Working in healthcare field requires one to work cooperatively and efficiently with his co-
workers and other stakeholders. A single visit requires collaboration among multidisciplinary
group of clinicians, administrative staff, patients and their loved ones. This maybe through direct
or indirect interaction and also communicating information to the team. There are different types
of teams in healthcare setting. Core teams are directly involved in providing care to the patients
which includes nurses, physicians. Coordinating teams provide operation and resource
management to the core teams. Another team is the contingency team which is formed to deal
with emergencies or specific events. Ancillary teams provide support which facilitate patient
care. A nurse working with a patient should ensure there is collaboration so as to achieve the set
goal and also have a positive outcome in terms of plan of care on the patient part. This will help
minimize miscommunication and errors. The nurse should also have a positive relationship with
the patient’s relative since they are the main caregivers after the patient in discharged. Taking
care of patients entails many responsibilities which maybe a bit difficulty to manage if everyone
does not take an active role. This article is based on a peer review journal article by Rosen et
al,2019; Teamwork in healthcare: Key Discoveries Enabling Safe, High-quality Care.
Rosen et al (2019), highlights the importance of team-based health care delivery, the challenges
of working in teams and interventions to overcome these challenges. The article also looks at the
transformations in healthcare systems to provide improved care. A summary of the article is
attached at the appendix of this work
Rationale for Teamwork in Nursing
One of the public health issue is ineffective care coordination and suboptimal teamwork process.
The complexity of a health delivery care system requires a dynamic policy and regulation
environment. The coordination and delivery of safe, high quality care demands teamwork and
collaboration within as well as outside the organization (Rosen et al,2019). One of the major
causes of medical errors is lack of proper coordination of health care delivery system (McDonald
et al.,2014. Thomas,2014 did a psychological research on how team members form cohesive
social units, interdependently function, and adapt over time to achieve shared goals and manage
complex work contributes to educational, technological, and work redesign interventions to
improve care delivery, patient outcomes, and, ultimately, public health. Hence the need for
teamwork in healthcare.
Importance of teamwork.
Effective team can improve the delivery of care at the level of organization, the team as a whole,
an individual team member and to the patient. Teamwork is important in mental health just like
any other discipline. Cooperation is required to enhance better treatment plan for individual
clients. Social workers play an important role in this interdisciplinary hence their cooperation is
required in developing and implementing comprehensive coordinated treatment as well as
discharge plans. Babiker (2014), teamwork is necessary as it stimulates and satisfies workers
environment in that workers are able to share out their experiences hence reducing frustrations
and tension. Teamwork in mental health ensures an individual’s needs are met. Since a team
presents many approach to one’s problem, different needs of an individual can be met with
different point of view and expertise. Therefore, generating new and creative solutions to a
client’s needs. Teamwork is important to the organization as it reduces the time and cost of
hospitalization. There is also reduction in unexpected admissions as more members means there
is increased production as patients are handled simultaneously no need to wait on care. Having
more expertise in health, patients can access services at one healthcare provider center which
reduces the time and cost spent on acquiring one
Challenges facing teamwork
The incorporation of shared responsibility and accountability among teams in healthcare system
brings benefits. However, shared responsibility without high quality increases risk to patients.
Gawande et al (2003) the change of roles in a clinical setting may present teams with difficulty
in acknowledging and role allocation. There is also patient harm due to communication failures
when there is transition of care. There is high risk of interaction s in which critical information
about the patient’s status and plan of care can be miscommunicated, leading to delays in
treatment or inappropriate therapies. Sutcliffe et al (2014) hierarchy in health care system poses
a challenge to effective teamwork by inhibiting assertive communication needed for effective
recovery of errors in cases where there is a violation of evidence based treatment protocol.
Further conflict resolution has been a problem for junior members or teams that are highly
hierarchical in nature. Team care specific interaction may lead to clinical harm. Where there is
poor communication in medication name, dose, route of delivery, and timing of administration
between physicians, pharmacists, nurses, and patients can lead to medication errors or near
misses (Keebler et al, 2013).
Intervention for effective teamwork
Intervention of interdisciplinary contexts in which coordination, communication, and
collaboration must occur across disciplines with different training, professional norms, and
specialized languages; and in contexts in which teamwork must occur asynchronously across
boundaries over prolonged periods of time. Improving teamwork in healthcare the various
workforce challenges in nursing including recruiting, retaining skilled labor force and physician
shortages can be managed. Rosen (2019) suggests different ways of making a team effective and
successful one of the ways of improving teamwork performance is by team training. Through
team training health care team competencies is increased. Hughes et al (2016) found out that
individual attitudes, team efficiency and safety levels are improved leading to increased patient
satisfaction. On -the job health care tools such as checklists, goal sheets and strategies can also
help improve team competencies. These helps to improve information exchange hence
overcoming information loss which may occur during care transitions (Keebler et al,2016).
Leadership inclusiveness should be adopted in health organizations. This helps to create a safe
work environment for individuals and team thereby reducing negative effects such as
psychological safety of teams. Organizations culture influences how teams operate and shapes
team member interaction. A good organization context should allow nurses to learn from their
mistakes so as to avoid errors in the future. Another intervention in healthcare for effective
teamwork is team composition and task independence. Having interprofessional collaboration
and multidisciplinary interaction helps to solve clinical problems and communication barriers.
Improved communication and shared awareness between nurses and physicians improves care
delivery to patients and also increased expertise (O’Mahony, 2007). Finally, a program can also
be implemented as a way of curbing team challenges. This combines both training and
organization redesign hence a more effective plan is tailored to the local situation.
Conclusion
Teamwork in healthcare is important as it improves the safety and quality of care delivery.
Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare helps to prevent medication errors, improve the
patient experience and deliver better patient outcome-all of which can reduce healthcare cost
(Babiker,2019). This also helps the hospital save money by sharing up workflow redundancies
and inefficiencies The teamwork and communication challenges in health care manifest the
problem of coordination neglect in organizational systems. Teams in healthcare faces challenges
such as hierarchical problems in making medical decision, problem solving and care transition
challenges. Team training, structuring tools and organizational redesign are some of the
intervention methods health organization can adopt to ensure teams performance is improved.
References
1.Babiker A, El Husseini ME, Al Nemri A, Al Frayh A, Al Juryyan N, Faki MO, Assiri A, Al
Saadi M, Al Zamil F. Health care professional development: Working as a team to improve
patient care. Sudan J paediatr 2014; 14(2):9-16.
2.Keebler JR, Dietz AS, Lazzara EH, Benishek LE, Almeida SA, Toor PA, Salas E (2014).
Validation of a teamwork perceptions measure to increase patient safety. British Medical Journal
Quality & Safety, 23, 718–726. 10.1136/bmjqs-2013-001942
3. Gawande AA, Zinner MJ, Studdert DM, Brennan TA. Analysis of errors reported by surgeons
at three teaching
hospitals. Surgery 2003; 133:614-621.
4.Olsen L, Young PL. The Healthcare Imperative: Lowering Costs and Improving Outcomes:
Workshop Series Summary. National Academies Press2010 Available
from: http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=12750.Accessed November 25, 2014.
5.Famadas JC, Frick KD, Haydar ZR, Nicewander D, Ballard D, Boult C. The effects of
interdisciplinary outpatient geriatrics on the use, costs and quality of health services in the fee-
for-service environment. Aging Clinical and Experimental Research 2008; 20:556-561.
6. Boult C, Green AF, Boult LB, Pacala JT, Snyder C, Leff. B. Successful models of
comprehensive care for older adults with chronic conditions: Evidence for the Institute of
Medicine’s Retooling for an Aging America report. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society
2009; 57:2328-2337.
7.DiazGranados D, Dow AW, Appelbaum N, Mazmanian PE, & Retchin SM (2017).
Interprofessional practice in different patient care settings: A qualitative exploration. Journal of
Interprofessional Care, 32, 151–159. 10.1080/13561820.2017.1383886 [PubMed: 29083254]
8. Grumbach K, Bodenheimer T. Can health care teams improve primary care practice? JAMA
2004; 291:1246-1251.
9. Gawande A. Cowboys and Pit Crews. Harvard Medical School Commencement Address,
2011.
10. Institute of Medicine (US) Committee on Standards for Developing Trustworthy Clinical
Practice Guidelines. Clinical Practice Guidelines We Can Trust. Washington (DC): National
Academies Press (US); 2011. Available from:
http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?record_id=13058&page=R1. Accessed November 25, 2014.
11.Michael A Rosen, Deborah Diazgranados, Aaron Dietz, Lauren E, Salie j weaver, Thomas
Thompson (2019), Teamwork in Healthcare: Key Discoveries Enabling Safer, High Quality Care
Amy Psychol. 2018; 73(4): 433–450. doi:10.1037/amp0000298
12.Sutcliffe KM, Lewton E, & Rosenthal MM (2004). Communication failures: An insidious
contributor to medical mishaps. Academic Medicine, 79, 186–194. 10.1097/00001888-
200402000-00019 [PubMed: 14744724]
13.Thomas EJ (2011). Improving teamwork in healthcare: Current approaches and the path
forward. British Medical Journal Quality & Safety, 200, 647–650.
Appendix
This article is based on a peer review journal article by Rosen et al,2019; Teamwork in
healthcare: Key Discoveries Enabling Safe, High-quality Care. The paper uses research from
other scholars to discuss the delivery of care in healthcare facilities through team-based care. The
author highlights the importance of teamwork being safe and a high quality care delivery and
also patient satisfactory. Working in teams helps to improve the delivery of care as there is more
expertise and low health costs. Despite this benefits team working may lead to medical errors
due to poor communication and coordination failures. This problem may be experienced due to
changing roles and setting in a healthcare. Also hierarchical organization leadership tend to slow
down medical decision making process in cases where protocal must be followed. Improving
teamwork is one of the strategy to help reduce the challenges. The author gives some
interventions for effective team work process. Team training should be adapted to enhance skills
of the care givers. Secondly, there should be redesign in the organization structure and culture.
More so, strategies such as tools of performance like checklists to monitor the teams. The paper
highlights the transformations that have taken place in medicine such as the virtual team working
in telemedicine in the USA. This has helped to reduce medical errors and expertise shortage in a
medical crisis. There is also electronic health records and paging. The author highlights areas for
further studies in team working in medicine.