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DiversityNursing Blog

Teamwork In Nursing

Posted by Erica Bettencourt

Tue, Feb 25, 2020 @ 10:45 AM

teamwork-1Today's health systems are made of skilled, multigenerational, and culturally diverse work forces. And even though each specialty has a specific focus, you all share a common goal. That goal is to provide the best patient care experience in a positive work environment. The best way to accomplish that goal is with teamwork.

Teamwork requires good communication and a collaborative care strategy. All team members want to feel that their ideas and skills are valued.

Team members should be encouraged to ask questions, share ideas or concerns, and discuss potential solutions. Each person's strengths and skills must be utilized to provide the best possible patient care experience and improve job satisfaction.

According to a report by The Society for Human Resource Management, teamwork is closely associated with higher job satisfaction. And a study published in the National Library of Medicine said, Nurses who are more satisfied with their jobs provide better care.

Trustworthiness is essential for teamwork, and the best way to grow trust is to get comfortable with one another. It’s crucial to build relationships and understand how each member of the team functions.

Team members have their own individual feedback, suggestions, and questions. Therefore, active listening is an important aspect of team operations.

When many health care professionals collaborate and brainstorm about a patient's care, the workload is distributed more evenly and stress is reduced.

Educational institutions are emphasizing the importance of teamwork and communication early to build a stronger foundation for successful healthcare outcomes.

Regis college published an article that said, mutual respect is critical in health care settings, not just within the team but across collaborative departments. Team members who are not feeling respected can become defensive, foster hidden agendas, demonstrate a lack of engagement, and worse. Building mutual respect comes through a common, focused goal; an understanding that each individual’s work is valuable and an acknowledgment of the efforts of others.

Patients must be part of the communication process too. Their early and thorough involvement has been shown to minimize errors and potential adverse events, according to an article published in the National Library of Medicine.

When everyone is working together as a team to accomplish a common goal, patient care improves and job satisfaction increases. Plus, it’s a happier, more cohesive and productive work environment for everyone involved, including your patients!

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Topics: teamwork, teamwork in nursing

Heart association offers tips for good teamwork in OR

Posted by Alycia Sullivan

Fri, Aug 23, 2013 @ 01:55 PM

Improving communication and strengthening teamwork among cardiac surgery teams are among recommendations for reducing preventable mistakes in the cardiac OR, according to a statement from the American Heart Association.

The statement provides recommendations for improving patient safety after the association reviewed evidence-based research focused on communication within and between teams, the physical workspace and the organizational culture of the cardiac OR.

"In multiple studies, self-assessment of communication and teamwork skills by surgeons and anesthesiologists is disturbingly discordant with the opinions of their associated nursing and perfusion staff," the statement authors wrote. "Surgeons rated the teamwork of other surgeons as high/very high 85% of the time, but nurses rated their collaboration with surgeons as high/very high only 48% of the time."

The authors also noted that in the OR, "conflicts are often poorly managed through avoidance, yielding or competition, when collaboration and compromise would yield a better outcome. Collaboration and compromise are particularly difficult when there is status asymmetry, whereby one member has greater power or seniority, such as physicians with nurses or an attending physician with residents."

Highlights of the statement, published Aug. 5 on the website of the journal Circulation, include: 

• Using checklists and/or briefings before every cardiac surgery, followed by postoperative briefings;

• Developing institutional policies to define disruptive behaviors by medical professionals in all hospital settings, with transparent, formal procedures for addressing unacceptable behaviors; 

• Establishing an institutional culture of safety by implementing a robust quality improvement system that encourages input from all team members to continuously identify and correct safety hazards. 

"From the data available," the authors wrote, "it appears that teams should be trained as teams, not as individuals; that use of simulated scenarios is effective; that both executive leadership and nurse managers are critical to effective implementation; and that repetition, continued coaching or both are required to strengthen and maintain benefits."

The authors noted the critical elements of teamwork can be summarized by the Six Cs: communication, cooperation, coordination, cognition, conflict resolution and coaching.

The statement is available as a PDF:http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/early/2013/08/05/CIR.0b013e3182a38efa.full.pdf

Source: Nurse.com 

Topics: improve, communication, teamwork, cardiac, cardiac OR, AHA

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