Influence of Teams on Patient Outcomes

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Table of Contents

Summary
What is teamwork?
The impact of teamwork and communication on patients’ outcomes
Teamwork Leadership
How can effective teamwork contribute to my practice area?
References

Summary

In healthcare, teamwork is imperative, especially in the clinic area I work in, which is child and adolescent psychiatry. A well-knit team of professionals can guarantee higher productivity of work and even make a difference in patients’ outcomes.

What is teamwork?

“Health care is a team sport, but too often practitioners act as individual players” (Trifonova, Slaveykov, Despotova, & Trifonov, 2014, p. 87). As practice shows, even doctors and nurses do not always cooperate with each other. That is because a team is not only a group of people. It is not even a group united by the same goal. To become a team, people have to act as one unit instead of working individually. It requires a common goal, common knowledge, and skills, as well as cooperative efforts. Besides, teamwork includes, and even goes beyond effective communication.

A healthcare team usually consists of physicians, nurses, assistants, technicians and managers who control the whole process. Even patients who seem to be powerless within the healthcare organization are a part of the team since they can either reward an organization or complain about it. Only an interaction of all these people can be called effective teamwork.

The impact of teamwork and communication on patients’ outcomes

A connection between teamwork and patients’ outcomes has already been confirmed in many clinical areas.

Communication between physicians and their patients, as well as communication among the staff, can improve the patients’ outcomes. According to Bluestone, Simons, and Healy (2014), communication failures usually become the cause of adverse events and even increase morbidity and mortality levels. “Many times simple communication would have averted serious patient injury” (Bluestone et al., 2014).

Moreover, the research has shown that approximately 70% of adverse events are caused because of lack of collaboration between physicians and their teams (Trifonova et al., 2014).

So, a patient-centered model of treatment does require a well-knit and functional team of professionals, each of whom should do “the best… to make a difference in patient’s outcome”. How can it be provided?

Teamwork Leadership

The crucial component of effective teamwork is leadership since leaders are responsible not only for their work but also for every single task of their team (Vincent, 2011). A leader has many responsibilities, and one of the most important is empowering and encouraging the team. For this purpose, three qualities are necessary. These are professional vision, passion, and integrity (Kelly, 2013). In other words, leaders should love their work, feel free and confident about establishing new goals and be able to make people listen to their ideas.

Currently, I am working as a unit manager, and I am responsible for my unit day and night, seven days a week. Although my working day lasts only 8 hours, I usually work a lot from home. So, I am a part of the leadership team.

I attend meetings to discuss and handle the staff and patient issues, as well as meet the leadership team, staff, committees, finance, etc. My role as a leader is to show every single individual of a group that they are needed for the common cause, “wanted on the unit” (O’Brien, p. 269). If they feel it, they will provide better patient care and the productivity of their work will increase.

Besides, since I am responsible for scheduling I also have to distribute the load between the staff. The organization of work is always a delicate balance between a desire to improve the healthcare system and a risk of overloading the staff. Too busy schedule, high pressure, and stress only increase the number of mistakes and adverse situations.

How can effective teamwork contribute to my practice area?

Psychiatry is a clinical area with extremely complex and interconnected systems. In this field, teamwork failures can lead to serious medical errors and become a huge step back in the whole process of treatment. Besides, in child and adolescent psychiatry, it is imperative for patients to feel safe. Only a well-knit and reliable team can guarantee it.

As O’Brien (2010) claims, “sometimes you have to be a detective” (p. 138). I agree – all of us have to. It is important to find out what a patient does not say directly, what they need, what they are afraid of and so on. We also have to know detailed and comprehensive information about every case and always be on the alert. Sometimes even a quick check on a patient in his or her room can make a difference. If nobody does it, they can forget to take the medications or even do it on purpose. All of these helps to control the patients and somehow predict their acts, which, in its turn, reduces the number of patient restraints and assaults on staff.

“Progress in teamwork is not always a straight line from initiation to success” (Porter-O’Grady & Malloch, 2013, p. 247). It is subtle and elusive. However, it does not mean that we should give up on trying. Just the opposite, we should maintain an effective team’s work to improve patient’s safety and outcomes.

References

Bluestone, C. D., Simons, J. P., & Healy, G. B. (2014). Bluestone and Stool’s Pediatric Otolaryngology (Vol. 1). Shelton, CT: PMPH-USA.

Kelly, P. (2013). Nursing Leadership & Management (3rd ed.). Boston, MA: Cengage Learning.

O’Brien, M. E. (2010). Servant Leadership in Nursing. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.

Porter-O’Grady, T., & Malloch, K. (2013). Leadership in Nursing Practice: Changing the Landscape of Healthcare. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Publishers.

Trifonova, K., Slaveykov, K., Despotova, L., & Trifonov, Z. I. (2014). Interprofessional collaboration in e-health environment. Science & Technologies, 4(1), 87-90.

Vincent, C. (2011). Patient Safety. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

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