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How do physicians understand teamwork? : Possible organizational implications

Rydenfält, Christofer LU ; Erlingsdottir, Gudbjörg LU and Borell, Jonas LU orcid (2016) 10th NOVO symposium November 10th-11th 2016
Abstract
Introduction
Interprofessional teamwork is associated with improved patient safety and job satisfaction. Previous research indicates that issues often appear when different professions’ perspectives don’t match up and it also shows that the use of the concept of teamwork within the healthcare literature is not as clear as could be expected. Therefore it is of interest to study how healthcare professionals understand the concept of teamwork as it could be considered the foundation for their expectations on teamwork and their own behavior as part of a team. In this study we investigate how physicians 1) understand the concept of teamwork and 2) think that teamwork could be improved.
Method
Semi-structured interviews regarding... (More)
Introduction
Interprofessional teamwork is associated with improved patient safety and job satisfaction. Previous research indicates that issues often appear when different professions’ perspectives don’t match up and it also shows that the use of the concept of teamwork within the healthcare literature is not as clear as could be expected. Therefore it is of interest to study how healthcare professionals understand the concept of teamwork as it could be considered the foundation for their expectations on teamwork and their own behavior as part of a team. In this study we investigate how physicians 1) understand the concept of teamwork and 2) think that teamwork could be improved.
Method
Semi-structured interviews regarding teamwork and the work environment were conducted with 20 physicians, from two hospital units, one intensive care and one emergency unit. The interviews were transcribed and coded in an explorative manner. Themes concerned with the physicians understanding of teamwork and how teamwork could be improved were selected for further analysis.
Results
The main organizational traits considered to be required for something to be teamwork were: specific roles, a common goal, a group of people and a team leader. However, it was only on specific roles that the physicians appeared to agree, with the other traits mentioned much less. Regarding how teamwork could be improved, the physicians had more diverse views. Communication skills, team training, to make roles explicit, an open climate and team stability were factors associated with improved teamwork.
Conclusions
Physicians appear to have a rather simple understanding of what teamwork is compared to contemporary team theory, and the results show that physicians see many and quite different paths to improved teamwork. However, there were differences between how physicians conceptualized teamwork in the two studied units. As the understanding of the concept of teamwork could affect the physicians’ behavior in relation to teamwork, this indicates that some of the issues associated with the implementation of teamwork could be due to how the concept is understood by different team members. Further research is needed to investigate how teamwork is understood by different professions and what the implications are. (Less)
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author
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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
pages
1 pages
conference name
10th NOVO symposium November 10th-11th 2016
conference location
Reykjavik
conference dates
2016-11-10 - 2016-12-11
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
8ce2497a-6188-4718-a9fb-783b8562e392
date added to LUP
2016-12-01 17:20:22
date last changed
2021-03-27 02:19:49
@misc{8ce2497a-6188-4718-a9fb-783b8562e392,
  abstract     = {{Introduction<br/>Interprofessional teamwork is associated with improved patient safety and job satisfaction. Previous research indicates that issues often appear when different professions’ perspectives don’t match up and it also shows that the use of the concept of teamwork within the healthcare literature is not as clear as could be expected. Therefore it is of interest to study how healthcare professionals understand the concept of teamwork as it could be considered the foundation for their expectations on teamwork and their own behavior as part of a team. In this study we investigate how physicians 1) understand the concept of teamwork and 2) think that teamwork could be improved.  <br/>Method<br/>Semi-structured interviews regarding teamwork and the work environment were conducted with 20 physicians, from two hospital units, one intensive care and one emergency unit. The interviews were transcribed and coded in an explorative manner. Themes concerned with the physicians understanding of teamwork and how teamwork could be improved were selected for further analysis.    <br/>Results<br/>The main organizational traits considered to be required for something to be teamwork were: specific roles, a common goal, a group of people and a team leader. However, it was only on specific roles that the physicians appeared to agree, with the other traits mentioned much less. Regarding how teamwork could be improved, the physicians had more diverse views. Communication skills, team training, to make roles explicit, an open climate and team stability were factors associated with improved teamwork. <br/>Conclusions<br/>Physicians appear to have a rather simple understanding of what teamwork is compared to contemporary team theory, and the results show that physicians see many and quite different paths to improved teamwork. However, there were differences between how physicians conceptualized teamwork in the two studied units.  As the understanding of the concept of teamwork could affect the physicians’ behavior in relation to teamwork, this indicates that some of the issues associated with the implementation of teamwork could be due to how the concept is understood by different team members. Further research is needed to investigate how teamwork is understood by different professions and what the implications are.}},
  author       = {{Rydenfält, Christofer and Erlingsdottir, Gudbjörg and Borell, Jonas}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{How do physicians understand teamwork? : Possible organizational implications}},
  year         = {{2016}},
}