Effective Teamwork in Health Care: Importance, Literature Review, and Assessment of a Work Team

Running head: EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK IN HEALTH CARE 1
Effective Team Work in Health Care
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

EFFECTIVE TEAMWORK IN HEALTH CARE 2
Introduction
Health facilities that have nurses organized into functional teams yield more results as
opposed to health facilities without teamwork. Proper teamwork ensures that members air out
their grievances. A team leader identifies members who are willing to make the cooperation and
the lone rangers. The leader motivates members who are working hard and at the same times
encourages lone rangers to support teamwork.
The leader of the team should mobilize the allocation of adequate resources to enable
nurses to attend to patients adequately. Effective collaboration succeeds where; the nurses get
training on the emerging trends in the medical field. Furthermore, a good leader should
understand the fact that different people have different abilities. Moreover, cases of missteps in
the area should not warranty name calling and finger pointing; instead, every nurse should
assume the responsibility for any mistake in the workplace.
A good team leader arranges for regular meetings to discuss issues affecting nurses. This
paper also accesses the two teams that I am a member. The first team has been in existence for a
long time. The team leader has appropriately delegated duties among the team members.
Members know each other well; hence, can confide in each other. Moreover, the team leader
calls for regular meetings. In the gatherings, we discuss the various challenges we face at the
hospitals. Furthermore, members share their experiences with the patients and encourage one
another to strive harder to meet the hospital's expectations, goals, and objectives.
The second team is somewhat disorganized, we do not reach regularly, and members
barely know one another. We aim to complete our postgraduate studies and graduate in June.
Effective teams are the key to success in any hospital. When adequately constituted, teamwork
can work miracles in ensuring that health facilities function smoothly.

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Literature Review on Team Effectiveness
Pressure due to the high amounts of patients in hospitals hinders the teams of nurses
typically from concentrating on how to perform their duties. According to Alharbi (2017), an
efficient team leader should remind the team members of such kinds of pressure and guide them
on how to overcome workload and ensure that their time at the workstation is a success
(Brainthwaiter, 2017). Most managers of health facilities blame nurses for poor performances but
fail to research on the route course of the problems.
Members of a team should work cooperatively; however, a majority of group members
chose to function in a lonely manner. For a leader to successfully build a functioning team; they
have to work tirelessly and involve all health stakeholders (Burton, 2016). Even after making the
team, individuals who have a habit of keeping to themselves are unlikely to change. Not even the
team leader can force the group members to work in unison (Cummings, 2018). Therefore, the
team leader requires unwavering determination and attention to make the teamwork.
The leader achieves team unity and corporation by looking at the following parameters.
The team members should strive to focus on the achievement of similar goals and objectives
(Debono, 2016). Once they have same targets, success is not far away. Members should freely
interact and share the various happiness factors and the challenges that each faces in the health
facility (Fiscella, 2017). Members should believe in similar approaches to solutions; hence apply
the methods whenever a problem surfaces (Frich, 2015). The team leader should ensure that their
teams know the strict guidelines that each should follow during working hours.
Research over the years has indicated that the procedures of managing perils yield
substantial mileage in the effectiveness of a team. The management of risk ensures that the
leader does not clash with the team members; since, any quarrel between the two parties

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interrupts the activities of a given organization (Garcia-Sierra, 2016). A team leader should be
skillful in ensuring that the members are a motivated lot (Kaba, 2016). Furthermore, an
institution should reward the most hardworking staff members to motivate them.
The improvement of team effectiveness involves; coming up with a strategic plan to
monitor the performance of a team. However, leaders need to practice caution so that members
do not view the idea as a ploy to rebuke their efforts (Kanerra, 2017). The plan provides a
platform which brings individuals together. Additionally, it shifts the focus of employees away
from the rigorous activities at the health facility to enable them to picture the reality of the
happenings at the hospital.
The generation of methods of managing perils, coupled with a well-planned procedure
and well-documented ways of carrying out the plan, brings workers together and encourages
them to be part of the plot. Team leaders allow members to respond to the effectiveness of the
risk management process (LaDonna, 2017). The medical institutions use the responses by
employees to how vital the plan has impacted the roles of nurses.
The outcome of the risk management processes geared towards health workers is useful
in enhancing: the understanding of members of staff on the outlay of their job descriptions.
Members can look at areas that they are performing well and those areas that they should
improve on (Ma, 2015). Furthermore, they can unanimously agree on the goals, priorities, and
objectives that they should pursue as a team. Members realize the essence of responsibility in
pursuit of the goals and objectives of the facility.
Members can now understand the shortcomings and the positives of their combined and
individual efforts. The desirable results of members combined efforts include the following:
interactions and meaningful sharing of essential ideas among members, and an improvement of