Introduction
In every environment or place, the need to work together as a team is essential. Whether one is working in an organization or even in a healthcare system, there is a need for teamwork, because this enables one to be able to apply what he or she knows best to the best of his or her ability through the help of other people they are working with according to study by Clements, et al (2005). Imagine a situation where one person decides to take all the tasks by himself, he or she might be able to accomplish it but not as better and efficient as well working as a team.
In the book by Drinka and Clark (2000), a team is an act of working together for the success of a particular task or objective for the benefit of the organization. Different healthcare systems have built the spirit of teamwork whether in the operating rooms, medical emergency departments, delivery and labor units, clinical units and intensive care units and other departments in the health system to improve the outcome of the patient. Therefore every person in the healthcare system must be able to develop skills, knowledge and attitudes for teamwork and a team.
Main Body
The essence of a team is to have competencies related to teamwork. These competencies have to include patient education and counseling, effectual communication with the patients and their family members, a supportive sharing of work with other health care professionals and also the healthcare professional must be in a position to be able to issue instruction for the completion of a particular work (Lemieux and McGuire, 2006).
In every health care system, teamwork plays a very important role in the delivery of different services from each department and as an organization as whole, according to the study by (Maginn, 1994). Due to numerous challenges encountered in a health care system, the aim of teamwork is to enable the health professionals to work together with each other, with other professionals like the staff in the social service department as well as with the patients and their carers for the purpose of ensuring that the need of the patients is met.
Also according to recent research by Merkel (2009) working as a team also leads to the achievement of high-quality service delivery in every department of the healthcare system, an increase in efficiency in every work that is being done as well as the productivity of the healthcare system increases. In the long run, if a health care system works as a team, there will be an increased patient base because of the efficiency and quality of the service delivered.
Working as a group or a team in healthcare systems comes along with many benefits. For instance teamwork enables improved and effective communication as well as partnership between the help providers and the patients thus leading to the productivity and delivery of high-quality service. Teamwork also enables different persons to be able to know more or acquire the required skills as he or she is able to learn from a person who knows better. This will also lead to clarity on the different roles of all the participating health care providers (Oandasan, et al, 2006).
Group work or teamwork also gives the opportunity of enhanced response processes while addressing different aspects of health in terms of the provision of the required care to the patient who is always the main goal of a health care system. There is also a much more improved coordination of different services in healthcare if there is teamwork. This is because one will be able to know what he or she is supposed to do and thus not leading to conflict of interest. In a health care system where there is team or group work, there will be much satisfaction from the patients and other stakeholders in its service delivery and management. This will also lead to an effective operation and use of different resources found in the healthcare system.
Working as a group or teamwork can also have some consequences in a healthcare system. For instance, the creation of team can consume much time of the healthcare system which might be used to deliver on other services. Also in teamwork there can be a time where there is a disagreement of a particular decision or procedure. Once there is a disagreement, there may be a delay in performing a particular task and if the task is much more related to the patient, it can lead to much more damage to the patient as in the book by Schopler and Galinsky (1990).
As common in a group, some members may dominate the group or team which can make others not be free to participate in the team’s work. This can lead to a divided group that in the long run will divide the working of the entire healthcare system. Therefore to avoid many pitfalls in team or group work in a health care system, there should be a need for leadership and effective communication because any fall in teamwork can lead to an adverse consequence in the healthcare system.
In teamwork, there is also deferring attitude toward a particular task which can lead to different outcomes. For instance if the team is working on a particular patient and there is the differing attitude all the way from the leadership of the team, the attitude of other team members will be affected and can lead to an either a negative or positive outcome to the way the patient is being treated.
Different Multi-Disciplinary Teams are present in healthcare compromising of different professionals with different or variety of skills which are essential in for the production of effective care and safety. The Multi-Disciplinary Teams are composed of different professionals like the theatre staff, doctors, surgeons and other students who are in clinical placement. Different members of the team had different roles such as the theatre staff operating on patients in theatres with the help of the surgeon and doctors who attended to the patients. They worked together to ensure that the patient is attended to and is cared for.
Most of the time in the Multi-Disciplinary Team, I offered support and watched how the patients were being operated on, because I was on clinical placement making me not have a specific role to be involved in this not being fully-fledged in the team. During my time in the team, there was effective care provided by the Multi-Disciplinary Teamwork for the care of the patient.
Conclusion
For effective service delivery and high productivity levels, team or group work is essential as it enables different tasks to be done more efficiently. Different personnel in healthcare should make sure that can work as a group. There should be also effective communication in the group so that the activities can be done more easily. Coordination and leadership in a group or team are essential as well because lack of coordination and leadership can lead to disagreement in a team or group and the disagreement can lead to poor delivery of services which can spill over into the entire health care system thus affecting its function.
List of References
Clements, D., Dault, M. & Priest, A., 2005. Effective teamwork in Healthcare: research and reality [online]. Web.
Drinka, K. Theresa & Clark, G. Philip, 2000. Health care teamwork: interdisciplinary practice and teaching. Westport CT: Greenwood Publishing Group.
Lemieux, C., L. & McGuire, W.L., 2006. “What Do We Know about Healthcare Team Effectiveness? A Review of the Literature.” Medical Care Research and Review 63: 263-300.
Maginn, D. Michael, 1994. Effective teamwork. New York: McGraw-Hill Professional.
Merkel, R., 2009. Teamwork in healthcare, essential. [Online]. Web.
Oandasan I et all, 2006. Teamwork in healthcare: promoting effective teamwork in healthcare in Canada [Online]. Web.
Schopler, Janice. H. & Galinsky, Maeda, J., 1990. Groups in health care settings. London: Routledge.