Teamwork in health may be defined as the collaboration of two or more parties using communication and discussion in problem-solving. Teamwork in medicine is key in modern medicine. With the specializations that have become normal due to the complex evolving nature of health issues, medical practitioners have found it necessary to consult others who may be better positioned to solve the case according to their expertise in the field. Also, the current medical challenges have compelled the use of several experts at once. Cases such as obesity that cause diabetes and heart complications have become common and as such teamwork and information relaying have become the norm.
One type of healthcare team is the parallel interdisciplinary care team. In this case, a case with several problems is sub-divided and distributed among relative experts. The problems are then solved concurrently with each focusing on their field. Another type is the consultative model that involves a central authority who seeks knowledge from the relevant experts then makes the decisions. Inter-professional collaboration involves several professionals discussing the issues at hand, integrating their various solutions to a unified one that is then taken (Baker, Amodeo, Krokos, Slonim & Herrera, 2010) .
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While the team hopes to achieve efficiency, they have to ensure they that some fundamental values that characterize an effective team are in place. Such qualities include but are not limited to: mutual trust, team leadership, concern, and equal performance. A team can only be operative if the leader is conscious of the issues that are faced by their team. Leadership, therefore, comprises of not only preparation, task distribution and supervising, it most importantly requires being mindful and observant. This is so that they are always aware of all the dynamics while out in practice and also in their team members psyche. Mutual performance is also key in any team. Every member should feel confident that the other members are playing their roles to their utmost potential so that they also feel the pressure to perform to the best of their standards. The team should also show concern towards each other to ensure there are no lapses by any member due to the overworking of any one member. Where one seems overloaded, concern ensures the other members can then easily overlap to compensate. Communication is also basic for any team to achieve functionality. Communication ensures all members know the position of their team members and reduces errors caused by assumption or lack of adequate information. Team orientation is the other property that should be embodied by any team. Team members should be able to take the opinions and perspectives of their other team members into account when making decisions about the case in hand. The most important quality of any good team is a common goal. It would prove difficult for the team to accomplish anything substantial when each individual has a different end in mind. If the team members do not share the same view, none of them can really achieve optimal results. A common goal ensures flexibility even in technique and strategy (Weller, Boyd & Cumin, 2014) .
The main barriers in teamwork in healthcare may be summarized by the following challenges: information sharing and inferiority. Information sharing is crucial for any medical practice and lack of enough information or inconclusive information could mean life or death. The other major challenge in teamwork in medical practice has to be hierarchical segmentation. Certain members of the group may consider themselves superior or having more desirable skills causing conflict. This affects performance of the other team members who may limit their input due to poor orientation limiting the overall functioning of the team. Superior members could also discredit the input of the others leading to disastrous results.
As communication proves the primary and most likely cause of team failure a number of issues may be taken into consideration in effect. The first one is that educational training in teamwork and communication should be undertaken by all who practice medicine (Salas & Rosen (2013) . Geography also greatly hinders communication since many hospitals may have wards separated by some distance. As such, reaching the relevant authority (example a nurse and a doctor) may prove hectic or even impossible. Most of these may be solved using modern technology or apparatus put in place by the hospital authority. Hierarchical issues may be solved by scheduling and the use of protocols to ensure all members have input equal to their position and no one gets either sidelined or overloaded.
References
Baker, D. P., Amodeo, A. M., Krokos, K. J., Slonim, A., & Herrera, H. (2010). Assessing teamwork attitudes in healthcare: development of the TeamSTEPPS teamwork attitudes questionnaire. BMJ Quality & Safety , qshc-2009
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..
Salas, E., & Rosen, M. A. (2013). Building high reliability teams: progress and some reflections on teamwork training. BMJ Qual Saf , 22 (5), 369-373.
