Teamwork In Health Care

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Introduction
Working in healthcare there are many different teams that work together such as doctors working with nurses, nurses working with pharmacists, and nurses working with patients. Many times, there are projects that need to be developed and collaborated between individuals of different individuals within the hospital, which are considered interprofessional teams. These teams rely on collaboration, open communication, and decision making that is shared among all of the team members, which adds value to patient care, this specific team, and the overall healthcare facility (Nancarrow, et al., 2013). In this scenario, a quality project is being developed, but the deadlines are not being met because the team members are focusing on the …show more content…

Team building can have a positive effect on the culture of the team, which can directly impact patient safety and the quality of work that will be put into the project. The team leader can use the Agency Healthcare Research and Quality and Department of Defense Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) program to build teamwork amongst the group (O'Leary, Sehgal, Terrell, & Williams, 2011). The team lead needs to get the team together and sit down so that everyone can brainstorm and learn from each other. This can be an effective means to motivate staff because staff can learn what everybody’s strengths are on the team and rely on each other for support and guidance on the improvement project. The team lead needs to set the expectation that staff will email the team lead once a week with the progress that they are making, if they need help because they are falling behind, and the team lead needs to provide positive reinforcement throughout the project so the team members feel that what they are doing is accomplishing a goal and they feel like they are contributing to the overall group. The team leader also needs to have a great working relationship with the staff. The leader needs to have a connection where staff can voice their concerns, the staff need to be supported in the learning process, and there is mutual respect between all team members …show more content…

The team can brainstorm ideas on how to keep the team focused on track. Once this initial meeting takes place it will be a good idea to meet with the group once or twice a month, even if the meeting is just five or ten minutes to see how things are moving along and address any difficulties that may arise in the process. A recommendation that this writer feels would be effective is to have a set amount of “off unit” time once a week or every other week, whether that is one or two hours to focus on this particular project and put all other work aside for that time. As a member of the Quality Improvement Council and the Nursing Quality Council, this writer gets four to six hours set aside each month to work on projects and audits, which was difficult in the beginning, but it has now become an expectation each month and other staff are aware as

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