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Reflect on your experiences as a member of a clinical team. What makes a team effective or ineffective in terms of achieving expected outcomes for the patients? (Saunders, 2014)

Module Three Discussion

For the past six years, I have been a nurse in the pediatric emergency setting, using teamwork and collaboration across multidisciplinary practices as an essential part in  providing patient care. The emergency department thrives on teamwork. Whether it's a nurse working directly with the doctor to see the plan of care, the communication with the radiology technician about specific imaging, or even the housekeeper that helps clean the trauma room after its been used, teamwork is integrated into every aspect of patient care. Having a holistic plan, the proper imaging, and a friendly clean environment allows for the patient to trust the healthcare providers. Furthermore, established roles allow for fluidity between everyone involved with care. When in the trauma room the established roles are: a primary nurse, who is the historian; the secondary nurse, who is change of completing all skills such as different type of catheter insertions; the medication nurse, who will be pulling up medications as they are verbally ordered for the situation; the providers at bedside such as surgeons, fellows, and emergency attendings; social workers comforting family members;  and the child life specialist making the patient comfortable. Even those who are not having direct patient care work towards patient satisfaction and a positive overall experience.  

Effective teamwork in the healthcare system involves closed loop communication and collaboration, centered around the best interest of the patient (American Association of Colleges in Nursing, 2015). Especially when looking at providers amongst different disciplines, bridging patient care is accomplished by having proper communication of diagnostic testing and lab results which ultimately allows for congruency (Hamric, Hanson, Tracy, & O’Grady, 2014). Currently, per each patient in the pediatric emergency department I work in,  there is an assigned primary registered nurse, a licensed practice nurse; a mid-level being either a nurse practioner, physician assistant, fellow or resident, and an attending medical doctor. Each are designated in getting specific patients stable and transported to their disposition quickly. Moreover, empowering patients by involving them in their own care makes them a part of the team as well. A patient involved in their own plan of care is more willing to follow it and have better health outcomes. They will be confident in the healthcare providers that they come in contact during their stay throughout the healthcare setting.   

In contrast, ineffective teamwork lacks proper communication, if there is any at all. Negative patient outcomes and inefficient care are a result of healthcare providers lacking teamwork. Historically, the tension between physicians and nurses posed as a main issue of lack of communication. When they fail to take each other's perspectives into consideration, a difficult work environment is created in which uncoordinated and unsafe care is provided.  Certain competencies have been established to promote effective collaboration in the healthcare setting. An example of this is seen in the hospitals that try to obtain Magnet status (Hamric et al., 2014). They are expected to meet certain criteria relating to collaboration with defined interdisciplinary relationships and professional models of care. However, these are more of a moral standpoint than actual legally binding rules to follow (Hamric et al., 2014).  There's no way to make effective teamwork a standard. There's only the hope that education and implementation of the most effective evidence-based practices will promote an environment that cultivates teamwork for the providers and patients.  

 

 

Reference   

American Association of Colleges in Nursing. (2015). Re-envisioning the Clinical Education of Advanced Practice Registered Nurses. Retrieved from https://www.aacnnursing.org/Portals/42/News/White-Papers/APRN-Clinical-Education.pdf  

Hamric, A. B., Hanson, C. M., Tracy, M. F., & O’Grady, E. T. (2014). Advanced practice nursing: An integrative approach (5th ed., pp. 111-115, 319-417). St. Louis, MO: Elsevier.