Team working practices are crucial to driving change within the organization. For a hospital to continue to grow, it is vital to ensure proper collaboration between its stakeholders. Since teamwork is crucial to providing care, healthcare organizations place a high value on it (Buljac-Samardzic, Doekhie, & van Wijngaarden, 2020).
One of the main vulnerabilities to the quality and safety of care is frequently found to be a lack of teamwork (Buljac-Samardzic, Doekhie, & van Wijngaarden, 2020). Therefore, enhancing teamwork has been given top priority. When it comes to the best strategies that facilitate change and ensure the adoption of new aspects of practice, effective communication and safety culture are crucial.
Starting with the first approach, proper communication between team members has a direct impact on patients. Effective transfer of knowledge, such as verbal and non-verbal communication through body language, is referred to as communication skills (Mata et al., 2021). Through empathy, informed, cooperative decision-making, and involvement, such skills can facilitate other team members’ comprehension and processing of information, as well as mutual respect and trust (Mata et al., 2021).
When communication skills are people-centered, they help medical professionals recognize needs, plan treatments, and foster a therapeutic, encouraging atmosphere for shared decision-making (Sheehan et al., 2021). It also encourages greater commitment to treatment and behavioral changes (Sheehan et al., 2021). Therefore, by communicating successfully, team members can ensure the provision of quality care.
Moreover, in the healthcare industry, safety culture is multifaceted and enduring. It represents core beliefs, guidelines, presumptions, and expectations that affect the entire community, including the health sector (Kyriacou Georgiou et al., 2021). The multifaceted nature of safety culture in the medical field has consistently prompted significant efforts to raise the standard of care and develop tools to enhance safety (Kyriacou Georgiou et al., 2021).
Effective management at all levels, an understanding of collaboration, transparency, and support for instruction, employees who feel psychologically secure, acknowledge and appreciate variety, and share a thrilling vision are essential components for medical facilities looking to maintain or enhance safety (De Brún et al., 2020). To work effectively, medical professionals need to believe they are in an inclusive workplace (De Brún et al., 2020). Thus, with the help of a safety culture, team members can ensure commitment to security and quality treatment.
Reference List
Buljac-Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., and van Wijngaarden, J. D. H. (2020) ‘Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: a systematic review of the past decade’, Human Resources for Health, 18(1), 2.
De Brún, A., et al. (2020) ‘The collective leadership for safety culture (co-lead) team intervention to promote teamwork and patient safety‘, International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 17(22).
Kyriacou Georgiou, M., et al. (2021) ‘Correlation between teamwork and patient safety in a tertiary hospital in Cyprus‘, Cureus, 13(11).
Mata, Á. N. S., et al. (2021) ‘Training in communication skills for self-efficacy of health professionals: a systematic review’, Human Resources for Health, 19(1), 30.
Sheehan, J., et al. (2021) ‘Methods and effectiveness of communication between hospital allied health and primary care practitioners: a systematic narrative review’, Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 14, 493–511.