Collaboration and Teamwork in Health Care

Collaboration and Teamwork in Healthcare

Concept of True Partnership

Over the years, there have been beliefs that doctors are more important that nurses in the healthcare field. However, significant progress has occurred concerning the idea of collaboration, and all care providers work together as a team to ensure favorable treatment outcomes despite their education, income levels, and rile in care provision. Lack of similar understanding of collaboration was identified as the primary barrier to a successful partnership in healthcare. Therefore, physicians and nurses must be willing to accept and work with the concept that effective collaboration happens when the interdisciplinary group starts using a competent policy with shared decision making, open communication, and mutual respect (McInnes, Peters, Bonney & Halcomb, 2015). Collaboration in healthcare is essential to help promote positive patient outcomes .

Benefits of Effective Collaboration and Teamwork

Collaboration creates teamwork among care providers, which promotes successful treatment outcomes for patients and job satisfaction for involved medical practitioners. A team considers the contributions of all members, unlike a patriarchal system where nurses only obey doctors’ orders. The partnership creates a platform for diverse knowledge and skills that are combined to create more effective healthcare techniques. Open communication policy plays a significant role in effective collaboration. Research findings in the field of healthcare indicated that more than 70% of treatment mistakes that happen in a collaboration result from poor communication. Therefore closing the professional gap that exists between physicians and nurses improves coordination hence improved quality of medical care services. Effective care outcomes benefit the organization by developing its popularity levels. The care practice, therefore, gains a competitive advantage over others through increased levels of demand.

Characteristics and Concepts Required

Members of a collaborating team should understand that they possess different working skills and therefore, should be flexible enough to accommodate each other. The team members share a common objective, ensuring favorable treatment outcomes, which makes it possible to adjust their functioning techniques towards the main course. Effective means of communication should be clearly defined between the members, patients, families, and the healthcare organization management to promote proper planning and meeting of the patients’ needs. Roles should also be delegated to avoid confusion and the emergence of conflicts within the collaboration (Cooke, 2016). Emotional maturity is also essential for every member to ensure a positive relationship with one another. People should also exercise a high sense of flexibility to accommodate others and learn new skills from others to create a dynamic improvement process in their functioning techniques.

Barriers

Conflicts are bound to occur in situations where people are working together as a group. Therefore, the lack of effective conflict resolution mechanisms derails the effectiveness of the partnership. Poor communication is also a barrier to the effectiveness of interdisciplinary collaboration. Improper definition of the collaboration tactics and functioning mechanisms can also lead to confusion; hence, destruction from the main course (McInnes et al., 2015). Lastly, inflexibility to accustom to new methods of operation affects the ability to work together as a team, which interferes with the efficiency of the partnership.

Evidence-Based Strategies To Overcome Barriers

Several techniques can be put in place to help build an interdisciplinary team and limit the possibilities of destroying the partnership. First, setting clear rules and regulations concerning the approach to the collaboration will help promote understanding and limit cases of conflicts. All members of the partnership should be involved in the creation of the laws and conflict resolution mechanisms to acquire full support of all individuals (Valentine, Nembhard & Edmondson, 2015). Enabling open communication policy is also useful in resolving the tension issue, conflicts, and confusion among the members. Members will be in a position to acquire all the needed information to enable effective operation.

Factors That Affect the Health of Families, Communities, Individuals, And Populations

Different elements affect the health of individuals, communities, people, and families are divided into external and internal factors. Internal factors are mostly self-induced and include eating habits, smoking, alcohol consumption, and regular physical activities. External factors entail elements that a person, a family, population, or the community has no control over. They include the external environment, microorganisms in the surrounding and the geographical location. For instance, a population located in a cold climatic condition region is more likely to be affected by diseases such as pneumonia. Internal factors that affect health and wellness can be stopped to avoid the emergence of health problems (Cooke, 2016). For instance, a person can decide to stop smoking to reduce the possibility of developing lungs disease and cancer. However, external factors cannot be stopped but can be controlled. Measures can be created to reduce the harm from the high degrees of cold, but its availability cannot be stopped. Wearing heavy clothing can be useful in protecting oneself from the cold hence prevention of pneumonia.

Conclusion

In conclusion, collaboration and teamwork in healthcare organizations promote values coordination that leads to effective patient outcomes. Excellent treatment outcomes do not only benefit the patient but create a feeling of satisfaction for involved medical practitioners. Improving communication standards to allow proper flow of information through the team is essential to enabling effective coordination that hence positive treatment outcomes. Barriers to effective interdisciplinary partnerships are generally solved by ensuring precise role definition and availability of excellent conflict resolution techniques. Health status of individuals and populations are affected by both internal and external factors. Identification and classification of the elements is always an essential step towards solving health issues.

References

Cooke, M. (2016). TeamSTEPPS for health care risk managers: Improving teamwork and communication. Journal of Healthcare Risk Management, 36(1), 35-45. doi: 10.1002/jhrm.21233

McInnes, S., Peters, K., Bonney, A., & Halcomb, E. (2015). An integrative review of facilitators and barriers influencing collaboration and teamwork between general practitioners and nurses working in general practice. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(9), 1973-1985. doi: 10.1111/jan.12647

Valentine, M. A., Nembhard, I. M., & Edmondson, A. C. (2015). Measuring teamwork in health care settings: A review of survey instruments. Medical care, 53(4), e16-e30. doi: 10.1097/MLR.0b013e31827feef6