Question

Respond to the following in a minimum of 175 words:

• Why are teams such an important part of health care?
• How will you use this strategy in your degree program while working on teams?

Answer 1

INTRODUCTION :

• In delivering health care, an effective teamwork can immediately and positively affect patient safety and outcome.
• The need for effective teams is increasing due to increasing co-morbidities and increasing complexity of specialization of care.
• The evolution in health care and a global demand for quality patient care necessitate a parallel health care professional development with a great focus on patient centred teamwork approach

Definitions

A team can be defined as a distinguishable set of two or more people who interact dynamically, interdependently and adaptively towards a common and valued goal/objective/mission, who have been assigned specific roles or functions to perform and who have a limited lifespan of membership

Team-based health care is the provision of health services to individuals, families, and/or their communities by at least two health providers who work collaboratively with patients and their caregivers—to the extent preferred by each patient – to accomplish shared goals within and across settings to achieve coordinated, high-quality care

An effective team is a one where the team members, including the patients, communicate with each other, as well as merging their observations, expertise and decision-making responsibilities to optimize patients’ care

Importance

Nowadays, patients are rarely looked after by just one health professional. In the context of a complex healthcare system, an effective teamwork is essential for patient safety as it minimizes adverse events caused by miscommunication with others caring for the patient, and misunderstandings of roles and responsibilities

Strategies to help health care teams to head towards successful achievements, which include:

• A life example of a strategic plan.

• Practical tips for health care team members.

• Monitoring progress through patients’ satisfaction.

1. Practical strategic approach

The context for health care and support is changing. Most significantly, with people living longer, we have a greater number of older patients and people to support, many with multiple and complex needs, and with higher expectations of what health, care and support can and should deliver. Delivering health and care support and services involves us working with people in a new partnership, offering and engaging with people in making choices about their health and care, and supporting ‘no decision about me without me”

2. Practical tips for health-care professionals

• Always introduce yourself to the team

• Clarify your role

• Use objective (not subjective) language

• Learn and use people’s names

• Be assertive when required

• Read back/close the communication loop

• State the obvious to avoid assumptions

• Ask questions, check and clarify

• Delegate tasks to specific people, not to the air

• If something doesn’t make sense, find out the other person’s perspective

• Always do a team briefing before starting a team activity and a debrief afterwards

• When in conflict, concentrate on “what” is right for the patient, not “who” is right/wrong?

• And remember: “Teamwork doesn’t just happen”.

It requires :

– An understanding of the characteristics of successful teams

– Knowledge of how teams function and of ways to maintain effective teams

3. Patient satisfaction

• A sensitive indicator for a successful health delivered teamwork is Patient satisfaction, which requires:C.P.R.

C: Compassionate Communication

P: Patient information/Pain management

R: Response

Conclusion

• The ambition of delivering quality patient care is subject to high performance through patient focused teams. However, we need to close a gap between traditional practices and the new attitudes required from an effective team to achieve such a great ambition.
• Therefore, health care organizations should aim at providing exceptional patient care by adopting wide team based culture in which certain values and principles are shared and transparently communicated among team members including patients who should be placed in the heart of the care.