The healthcare environment presents various situations that require close working relationships and effective communication among healthcare professionals. Effective interdisciplinary teams are observed to stick to a specific set of principles that guide their teams. Each member of the team performs their assigned role and contributes to the result of the team. Since an efficient interdisciplinary unit is easy to identify due to positive outcomes and timely completion of tasks, a majority of organizations are applying the principles of effective teamwork in their operations. Collaboration is a critical aspect of practical cooperation in healthcare. Even though cooperation and teamwork are two concepts that are tied together in healthcare settings, the two can be distinguished by collaboration being defined by unified thinking and execution of tasks while teamwork involving individuals or groups performing functions for the common good of the whole team. The concept of collaboration in healthcare together with its characteristics and benefits as well as an assessment of the barriers to effective collaboration and how such obstacles are overcome need to be analyzed.
The concept of collaboration is not new on healthcare. Before the professionalization of healthcare, healers, midwives, and other concerned parties worked together to achieve positive outcomes for their patients. Over time, this concept has been studied and refined. There is a consensus that patient outcomes are not at the level that health practitioners would wish them to be in the modern world. With an emphasis on improved healthcare, collaboration is a critical strategy in for healthcare reform (Mosch & Mancell, 2015). True partnership requires focus in three central areas of healthcare, problem-solving, information sharing and teamwork. Healthcare practitioners encounter problems related to their work situation on a daily basis, therefore sharing is essential in finding quick and effective solutions. Information sharing on the other hand aids in the transfer of knowledge and crucial data. Finally, teamwork requires all the players to work in together to achieve a common goal. All these three paradigms are tied to each other and are beneficial to the whole concept of collaboration.
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Collaboration has many benefits to patients and team members as well as to the whole organizations. Patients who are the primary focus of collaborative measures taken in healthcare are the real beneficiaries of collaboration but not the only ones. Mosch and Mancell (2015) observed that collaboration improve patient outcomes like decreased mortality rates, reduced adverse drug reactions and reduced hospital stay period. Collaboration also enhances the level and quality of care offered to patients and reduces readmission rates. Teamwork also plays a role in increasing job satisfaction for practitioners and caregivers. A reduced workload is the other benefit enjoyed by team members. The main advantage of collaboration and teamwork to the organization is improved the public image of the organization to the public. Improved patient outcomes aid in building trust between the organization and the public. Enhanced image and conducive working environments enable the organization to attract specialized and well-skilled personnel.
Effective interdisciplinary collaboration is characterized by role clarity, excellent communication, integration and accountability (eWorkplaceApps, 2018). The efficiency of a multidisciplinary team is heavily reliant on each team member executing their role. The mere presence of talent in a group is not enough ingredient for success. Multidisciplinary teams are made up of specialists like diagnosticians, anesthesia, prescribers, and surgeons (Mosch & Mancell, 2015). Situations may arise that require overlapping of the roles. It's therefore crucial that team members are comfortable in their positions. Communication is another critical pillar of active teams. Disclosure should not be limited to oral delivery of information, but other methods like cell phones may also be helpful. Integration in the team ensures that members work without conflicts or arising conflicts are quickly solved. Accountability, on the other hand, provides responsibility for the team and prevention of conflicts.
The practice of effective interdisciplinary collaboration requires an understanding of the barriers to successful multidisciplinary collaboration. The ambiguity of roles and leadership in teams in the leading cause of failed collaboration in healthcare. Just like well-stated roles enhance task completion efficiently on time, role ambiguity in teams leads to clashing tasks and conflicts within the team. Uncertainty in leadership roles results in contradicting instructions and unattended tasks. Ignorance within the group and unappreciative members within the group adversely affect team morale. Members have to understand the role played by other members and shouldn’t undermine their importance in the team. Communication breakdown between members is also a leading course of failure. Collaboration requires constant communication between team members to ensure smooth flow of tasks, instruction, and operations. Communication breakdown may occur due to the wrong choice of methods of communication within the multidisciplinary team or unresolved conflicts.
Barriers to collaboration need to be overcome using evidence-based strategies to regain the functionality of the team. Educational intervention aids members to understand the roles of others and also learn about the methods of conflict resolution (Weller, Boyd, & Cumin, 2014). Communication barriers may also be overcome through education as well as organization strategies that ensure information is shared effectively. Lack of education may not cause psychological like ignorance, is therefore essential for the leaders to conduct team bonding and encourage close working relationships. Organizations also need to set up structured leadership to avoid ambiguity in leadership roles in teams. Well, structured teams are also an essential requirement in preventing communication failure caused by too large teams. Overcoming these barriers enables the team members, patients and the organization to enjoy the benefits of interdisciplinary collaboration.
As organizations continue to embrace teamwork a collaboration in their healthcare activities, it’s crucial that the concept of collaboration be researched and refined to reap the full benefits associated with it. The benefits gained from collaboration in health care highlight the importance of this idea. Due to the role that collaboration plays especially in interdisciplinary healthcare teams, the barriers that hinder effective communication should be overcome for teams to achieve their goals. Indeed the future of healthcare lies in collaboration and teamwork between health practitioners and caregivers.
References
eWorkplaceApps. (2018). Five Characteristics of Collaborative Teams - Blog . Retrieved on 19 Jananuary 2018, from http://issuetracker.eworkplaceapps.com/blog/five-characteristics-of-collaborative-teams/.
Mosch, B., & Mancell, H. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration in health care. Canadian Pharmacists Journal (148)4 , 179-179.
Weller, J., Boyd, M., & Cumin, D. (2014). Teams, tribes and patient safety: overcoming barriers to effective teamwork in healthcare. Postgraduate medical journal, 90(1061) , 149-154.
