Teamwork in Business to Healthcare

Teamwork is used in a variety of different settings that vary from business to healthcare. “A dynamic process involving two or more healthcare professionals who interact for a common purpose, working toward measurable goals that benefit from leadership,” is how teamwork is defined in the healthcare field (HRH Global Resource Center). The use of assessing, planning, and evaluation helps in determining the goal of what the team aims to accomplish. Forming teams are essential in the healthcare field, the Canadian Health Services Research Foundation has noted that the functionality of teams is far better when the purpose is defined and a protocol is implemented. It is vital for patient centered care to have a team that collaborates and works together well due to the number of health workers that are involved in the care.

Health care is complex and requires collaboration in order to provide quality and safe care to the patient (HRH Global Research Center). The goal is to provide exceptional, quality care to the patient. Teamwork allows this to happen and requires proper communication. The needs of the patient must be information that workers relay to each other and help with providing. This prevent medical errors as well. Medical tasks that are not done or need aid in decision making requires a team that work together to check. It is a sort of checks and balances regarding medical errors to be sure nothing is done incorrectly and everything is done that needed to be. Not only does this benefit the patients, it creates a hospitable work environment (Career Quest, 2017).

This is most certainly a factor for a hospital where there is a massive amount of staff compared to a private practice. Hospital require extensive collaboration to provide the care that the patient's need. Nurses have varying schedules where they have to switch off their patients to another. The way they do this is without disruption of quality of care. Collaborative care is the center of nursing, and the patient is always put first (ANA Staff, 2016). I was a witness to this in both the care of my sister after she had given birth, and when my grandmother was in the hospital due to pneumonia. The care and collaboration provided to both of my family members was exceptional. When the shift of one nurse was over, the next would be briefed by the previous nurse, introduce themselves, and see what medical tasks needed to be done. They would start right where the last left off.

The goal that nurses aim to achieve is in improving the health of the patient and aiding in medical tasks that need to be completed as well as being emotionally supportive all while working together and using communication. Nurses use their skills of being adaptable and empathetic support to provide the care that is in the best interest of the patient. Head nurses become strong leaders that use critical thinking collaborative health care that is given. The goals are committed by the lead nurse. The nurses were very helpful in the prenatal care when my sister had given birth. The nurses station was commanded by the lead nurse who facilitated in managing the other nurses in the prenatal care area. Even after my sister had given birth, the nurses were just as helpful and attentive.

The nurses were very excellent at providing care in both situations that required different types of care. Proper communication was one of the key elements that allowed this team to be successful in meeting their goals. The way the nurses were able pick up where the last one left off after leaving, is very commendable. Communicating the patient's needs and medical tasks that need to be completed made the nurses adapt quickly. Their bedside manner was very pleasant as they were friendly and very helpful in answering questions and assisting family members with other needs. They answered the ringer in less than a minute and made sure both my sister, the baby, and my grandmother were in stable condition when checking on us. The use of communication is definitely one of the factors that would help in any team. Being able to convey ideas, problems, or concerns effectively is what makes a team member valuable and allows the team to succeed.

Healthcare has become very complex and managing patient care does garner errors from any level of care. There are many variables involved when care is provided to patients. Unfortunately, even in surgery mistakes do happen. In this case the patient had the misfortune of experiencing a variety of mistakes throughout his surgery that was scheduled. Risk reduction strategies are now set in place to ensure mistakes like these do not happen and surgeries do not happen on the wrong site.

The strategies listed by Rachel Fields from Becker’s Infection Control and Clinical Quality display 8 techniques to avoid errors. First and foremost is to validate information for the correct side and site of the surgery prior to it taking place, which should be the day before it is scheduled. Another validation that must be in accordance must be that all preoperative documents note the correct side and site of surgery, which in this case did not happen and was not properly checked before surgery. The technique to mark the site of surgery was used by the surgeon, however, the nurse mistakenly covered the mark. Fields recommends to confirm the side and site of surgery with all staff members and the patient to ensure they are aware as well.

Training staff on checking proper checklists for surgery will ensure that they know what factors to look and ask for when scheduling. Making the problem aware is also another way to provide knowledge of what could happen to staff members. This way they will know what to watch out for. Lastly, to measure compliance, random selections can be made to ensure the correct procedures for surgery are taking place. All of these techniques would have aided in this scenario, which could have been prevented in either the scheduling area or prior to surgery if the patient had been awake to communicate the correct site and side.

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