One of the most important advances in the delivery of healthcare has been recognition of the need for developing highly functioning multi-disciplinary teams. Such teams, when structured in a cohesive fashion, can function more effectively and efficiently than the sum of their parts. The benefits of teamwork extend from the delivery of care to a single patient to the overall structure and function of entire care delivery systems. Recognizing the value of collaborative approaches for improving all aspects of healthcare delivery and having champions, leaders, structure, function, goals, and accountability are paramount to success, regardless of how defined. Another important pillar of teamwork is excellent communication with clearly defined information flows and cross-verification mechanisms. This book outlines how to work together for shared goals in a complex, diverse, and constantly evolving health care system.

A complete introductory guide to the principles and clinical application of teamwork in health care Understanding Teamwork in Health Care emphasizes the essential competencies necessary to implement teamwork in health care in a complex hospital or primary care setting. Unlike similar books on the subject which are theoretical or policy-oriented, this text offers practical, real-world coverage. Valuable for health care professionals seeking a thorough explanation of teamwork and for trainers working in hospitals or primary care settings; could also be used as a textbook. Mini-cases throughout the text help readers appreciate real-world application of principles Written to a level suited for the non-specialist

Effective healthcare is vital to prevent illnesses and injuries, to provide treatments and rehabilitation from illnesses and injuries, and to enhance physical, psychological, and social health and well-being. Twenty-first-century healthcare has become a “team sport” that requires multidisciplinary teams with diverse knowledge, skills, abilities, perspectives, and wisdom. Multidisciplinary healthcare teams include physicians, nurses, dentists, psychologists, physical and occupational therapists, and other healthcare practitioners; healthcare researchers, scholars, and educators; healthcare administrators and policymakers; as well as patients and patients’ significant others. This volume includes chapters that address multidisciplinary teams from many different professional, scholarly, and experiential perspectives of experts around the globe. The chapters are written by scholars, practitioners, and educators from Canada, Grenada, Iran, Nigeria, Norway, Qatar, South Africa, United Kingdom, and the United States. It is the goal of this volume to increase understanding of what factors improve and detract from effective multidisciplinary teamwork in healthcare in order to improve its application and enhance the well-being of patients, practitioners, and all members of healthcare teams. Topics addressed in this volume include teams and team members, the importance and benefits of teamwork in healthcare, teamwork skills, and enablers, creating and optimizing healthcare teams, team challenges, and educating healthcare professionals for multidisciplinary teams. Each chapter stands alone to make meaningful contributions regarding multidisciplinary teamwork in healthcare. Together, the chapters in this volume provide a valuable and thoughtful discussion of multidisciplinary teams in healthcare along with a comprehensive list of references for readers who want to dig deeper.

Providing healthcare is a team endeavor. Teams play an important role along the full chain of patient care, ranging from ad-hoc emergency and anesthesia teams delivering immediate care to tumor boards conferring on long-term cancer treatment. Thereby, quality of patient care hinges on the successful intra- and interprofessional collaboration among healthcare professionals, and sensitive partnering with patients and their families. In particular, communication and coordination in healthcare teams have been found essential for team performance and patient safety. Yet, effective teamwork is challenging, especially in large hospitals where turnover rates are high, and for interdisciplinary and interprofessional ad-hoc teams lacking the experience of constantly working together as a team (e.g., ICU, emergency teams, obstetrics, or anesthesia). Moreover, healthcare teams deal with complex tasks, have to make risky and fast decisions under uncertainty, and to adapt quickly to changing conditions. Fostering research on how to promote effective teamwork in healthcare may thus make an important contribution to a better quality of patient care.

Good teamwork ensures the close collaboration and coordination between professional groups and across disciplinary boundaries. This is particularly important in healthcare centres and clinics admitting complicated patient cases, but contrary to what many healthcare organisations seem to believe, effective teamwork does not happen automatically. It needs to be successfully trained and practiced. Teamwork in Medical Rehabilitation provides a guide to efficient teamwork in professional healthcare. Showcasing the practice of medical rehabilitation in Sweden, the book describes how to create, develop, nourish and organise a team. Medical rehabilitation in Sweden is a discipline filled by not only doctors and nurses, but also physiotherapists, occupational therapists, psychologists, social workers, speech therapists and dieticians. Using these multi-professional teams as clinical case studies, the book contains many practical examples from different rehabilitation care areas. This book will prove to be invaluable to healthcare professionals and students as effective collaboration is essential to good clinical outcomes. Managers will also find this a worthy read thanks to its understanding of how working conditions affect good teamwork.

Practical, proven techniques for improving team performance in the health care world Teams and collaboration have become an expectation in most healthcare facilities and environments. It is accepted that high performance, patient focused teams are critical to quality patient care. However, there is often a wide gap between traditional practices and the new behaviours and practices required for teamwork and collaboration. Improving Health Care Team Performance goes beyond theory to provide the knowledge, tools, and techniques required to develop a single team, or to develop an organization wide team based culture, from which exceptional patient care emerges. Most uniquely it emphasizes that effective teamwork goes far beyond team dynamics and provides detailed description of additional requirements, such as shared learning and change compatibility, and how to fulfill them. A practical handbook for healthcare leaders striving to ensure a superior patient experience and high quality of care, Improving Healthcare Team Performance not only provides specifics on how to develop high functioning teams, whether multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, or departmental but also offers those dealing with the common healthcare leadership challenges of low morale, poor communication, interpersonal conflict, and lack of knowledge sharing the tools to take immediate action to improve performance. Providing a proven approach to addressing and preventing everyday issues impacting patient care, Improving Health Care Team Performance contains everything needed to identify areas of greatest need within a team or department, take targeted action to address key gaps, and measure progress towards positive change. Presents a clear depiction of what constitutes collaboration and a high-performing patient focused team. This includes the skills and practices required to improve team performance and ultimately the quality of patient care, how to develop new attitudes and behaviours within the team, as well as the leadership requirements for success in a patient focused, team based culture. Provides a set of development tools accessible online to help the reader quickly and easily apply the knowledge gleaned. Offers targeted solutions including tips/recommendations, a step-by-step approach for affecting necessary change at every level of the organization, and skills and team development activities. Designed for leaders working in any healthcare environment, Improving Health Care Team Performance is a practical approach to improving team performance and the quality of patient care.

PROMOTING PARTNERSHIP FOR HEALTH This book forms part of a series entitled Promoting Partnership for Health publishedin association with the UK Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE). The series explores partnership for health from policy, practice and educational perspectives. Whilst strongly advocating the imperative driving collaboration in healthcare, it adopts a pragmatic approach. Far from accepting established ideas and approaches, the series alerts readers to the pitfalls and ways to avoid them. DESCRIPTION Interprofessional Teamwork for Health and Social Care is an invaluable guide for clinicians, academics, managers and policymakers who need to understand, implement and evaluate interprofessional teamwork. It will give them a fuller understanding of how teams function, of the issues relating to the evaluation of teamwork, and of approaches to creating and implementing interventions (e.g. team training, quality improvement initiatives) within health and social care settings. It will also raise awareness of the wide range of theories that can inform interprofessional teamwork. The book is divided into nine chapters. The first 'sets the scene' by outlining some common issues which underpin interprofessional teamwork, while the second discusses current teamwork developments around the globe. Chapter 3 explores a range of team concepts, and Chapter 4 offers a new framework for understanding interprofessional teamwork. The next three chapters discuss how a range of range of social science theories, interventions and evaluation approaches can be employed to advance this field. Chapter 8 presents a synthesis of research into teams the authors have undertaken in Canada, South Africa and the UK, while the final chapter draws together key threads and offers ideas for future of teamwork. The book also provides a range of resources for designing, implementing and evaluating interprofessional teamwork activities.

Health care and teamwork in a business-driven environment -- Healthcare teams and business teams : a mix of assumptions and values -- Communication in an interprofessional team environment : narratives, myths, metaphors, and mental images -- Key elements in team development and maintenance -- Leadership and power on interprofessional healthcare teams -- Conflict and problem solving on interprofessional healthcare teams -- The patient as teacher and learner -- Values and ethical issues in interprofessional practice : a new dimension of teamwork -- Theory in interprofessional education : there is nothing so practical as a good theory -- Developing and maintaining interprofessional education : the devil is in the details -- Final thoughts and reflections.

This book provides a comprehensive study of the science behind improving team performance in the delivery of clinical care.

This practical, straightforward guide presents the basic skills, attitudes, and knowledge needed for successful interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. Collaboration is fundamental to quality healthcare, and many regulatory bodies and accrediting agencies now have standards and benchmarks for interprofessional collaboration. This guide brings together in one volume basic collaboration competencies for healthcare professionals. Teamwork, Leadership and Communication serves both as an introduction for novices and as a refresher for experienced practitioners. It provides exceptional learning support for classes, working groups, and self-study. Topics include: Group dynamics, team structures, decision making, shared leadership, conflict management, communication in small groups, stereotyping, liability and more.