Why is Teamwork important in the healthcare system?

While researching about team building and effective teams in the health care field I came across an interesting article that described the importance. the link to the article can be found here: http://www.hrhresourcecenter.org/HRH_Info_Teamwork. There are two broad categories of the article which consists of collaboration and the overall importance of a team, specifically in a health care setting.

When discussing collaboration, the goal Is to expand the purpose of traditional roles of workers and to make decisions as a unit to work toward a common goal. A study done by the Canadian Health Services showed that teams function better when they have a clear purpose with the goal of implementing protocols and procedures. Health care is a multidisciplinary profession in which nurses, doctors, and administrators must work together in order to deliver the most efficient care to patients. Each profession in health care have their own specialties and knowledge based on what their job is and what they learned in school. These different professions have to collaborate with one another to bring all of the knowledge together in order for the patient to be satisfied. With many different minds coming together discussing a patients health conditions, the most efficient solution can be implemented.

When discussing the overall importance of a team the first important aspect is that primary care is becoming more advanced and specialized which makes the workers have to perform complex tasks and learn new methods quickly. Also, with obesity, diabetes, and addiction being common themes in the United States, these workers also have to work on preventative measures and teach patients the importance of how terrible these diseases are. Lastly, many doctors have to manage patients with MANY different conditions which involves a team of health care workers tending to these people. These three reasons are why a team setting is so important in health care to enforce quality of care for the patients being treated.

Overall, I thought this article did an excellent job summing up what we already learned about team work in the health care field. The first step is having collaboration, involving many different doctors with different specialties coming together to treat a patient in a safe and healthy way. With many different diseases and personal decisions being made in the United States, Doctor, Nurses, and administrators must come together to treat the patient.