Teamwork and Communication in Elderly Care: Greenwich Case Study

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RESEARCH TOPIC
What makes effective communication in care assistants’ and teamwork in support of
elderly service users in the borough of Greenwich?
Contents
RESEARCH TOPIC.........................................................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................................1
RATIONALE..................................................................................................................................................2
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES................................................................................................................................3
RESEARCH QUESTION..................................................................................................................................3
LITERATURE REVIEW....................................................................................................................................3
STUDY DESIGN AD METHOD........................................................................................................................5
DATA COLLECTION.......................................................................................................................................6
DATA ANALYSIS...........................................................................................................................................6
LIMITATIONS...............................................................................................................................................7
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION...........................................................................................................................7
TEMPORAL PLAN.........................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................................10
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INTRODUCTION
Communication is defined as the conversation between people to understand each
other and to be able to interact. Communication is an important aspect of human life as
without communicating a person cannot lead his life (Alonso and Dunleavy, 2012). As
human is a social animal communicating with each other is one of the essential parts of
his social activities and is proved that people who communicate well lead a better and
quality life. In health and social care, communication is very important as interacting
with the patient is key to success in health and social care. Communication between the
professional and the patient, with the family of the patient and also with other
professionals creates a therapeutic relationship that is essential for the delivery of good
services. Every patient who seeks health care has a team of professionals working with
him to promote his needs and services according to his condition. It is seen that elderly
patient usually has higher expectations from the staff and the services they will receive,
the patient not only expects good environment and support from doctors and nurses but
also from other professionals and supporting staff. As communication is identified as
key to positive health care same is the teamwork (Craig, Moxey, Young, Spenceley and
Davidson, 2012). Teamwork refers to the working of professionals from a different field
in collaboration to achieve a common goal that is patient satisfaction and recovery.
Teamwork is stated to be highly beneficial in elder care as the age group is vulnerable
to harm and abuse due to their dependent nature and physical constraints with age,
teamwork and collaborative working in case of these patients provide he with a safe and
protected environment and services. This research is aimed at understanding the
benefits of communication and teamwork in the health and social care of the elderly
patient in the London borough of Greenwich.
RATIONALE
It is seen that health and social care usually pays attention at primary interventions and
promotion of health services but majorly lacks some details that are essential in
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promoting health and wellbeing of the individual. One such aspect of healthcare is
effective communication and teamwork. It is identified that effective communication with
the patient promotes better health and mental serenity to the patient where the support
is not just physical by the interventions to help the individual deal with physical issues
but it also makes the professionals have thorough knowledge of requirements of the
patient as well as feelings that he has regarding his condition and open the doors for
them to achieve better psychological health with help of social interactions. As well
teamwork within the team of the patient that is professionals involved in the care
process is important as seen professionals communicating well with each other are
more successfully delivering services that are capable to achieve patient satisfaction.
Effective communication not only is characterized by the use of appropriate words and
statements but it also contains the use of proper nonverbal communication methods
that help in the formation of better rapport with the patient (Ritchie, Lewis, Nicholls, and
Ormston, 2013). In elderly care usually, lack communication and teamwork within the
professionals fail the services and makes the organization incapable of delivering
patient-centered care. In Greenwich borough of London, health care is effectively
delivered and is raising concern. The problems that occur due to ineffective
communication and improper teamwork should be identified and the strategies to
incorporate these aspects in elderly care in Eltham health care services should be
recommended for more effective elder care in the region. Communication is justified to
be highly beneficial in the health care services of an elderly patient and its efficiency
and effectiveness should be evaluated in the chosen region. This research will provide
clear insight into the concept of communication in healthcare and the benefits of
promoting health care to the elderly patient with planned teamwork.
AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
AIM
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The aim of this study is to critically evaluate the effectiveness of teamwork and support
in elder care in the London borough of Greenwich.
OBJECTIVES
 To identify the benefits of teamwork in health and social care
 To understand the effectiveness of teamwork and support in elderly care
 To analyze the effect of partnership working on service user as well as a provider
in elderly care
RESEARCH QUESTION
Why is communication in teamwork so crucial in order to benefit the elderly in the
community of Eltham?
LITERATURE REVIEW
Communication in teamwork is a very important aspect as the majority of teams fail due
to ineffective communication techniques they practice. Openness, trust and autonomy
are some of the factors that lead a good team to deliver positive services and achieve
better results. Lack of communication or ineffectiveness of interaction between health
professionals leads to failure of the entire team, modern health care is delivered by
teams and not only by a single person. Teamwork has been enhanced in last few
decades but major challenge the teams face is ineffective communication approaches
within the disciplinarians of the team. Mainly the challenges that are present include
educational, psychological and informational challenges. The study by Weller, Boyd and
Cumin, (2014) suggested a seven-step plan or overcoming these barriers. This plan will
ensure patient safety, autonomy, increased efficacy of care, compilation rate and
decreased mortality rate.
Teamwork itself refers to communication, coordination and cooperation of the members
of the team to achieve the goals that are desired. Communication in teamwork has a
major role in promoting cooperation and coordination among health care professionals.
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Barriers in communication in teamwork usually present as challenges that enable the
team members to not communicate well and the care planning does not structure as it
should. It is seen that communication plays a vital role in binding the team together and
effective communication also enables a high level of cooperation among individuals in
the team. In elderly care or health care that is a high-risk department, teamwork
provides better services production and delivery and communication in teams provide
as a base to this effectiveness and efficacy to care (Gluyas, 2015.)
According to the study by O'leary et al, (2012), effective health care can be achieved
through proper teamwork and communication. It is greatly correlated with high patient
satisfaction and service delivery. The research evaluated the effectiveness of teamwork
communication in elder care by use of the tool (SIBR). The research was conducted on
555-bed acute elderly care metropolitan hospital. The staff members including doctors,
nurses, other professionals, etc. total 24 in number were evaluated for their perception
of teamwork and communication. Job satisfaction was an important variable that was
discussed and communication between the professionals in the team was found to be
an important factor for increased job satisfaction that is related to recruitment and
retention of staff. Effective communication with teamwork was also found to be
beneficial in providing a safe environment with quality patient care, interdisciplinary
rounds that help to interact with other professionals as well patient proved to be
beneficial in improving the quality of care and safety of the patient. The study concluded
that these factors are interrelated and focus on how team communication is beneficial
and providing patient safety, quality services and job satisfaction in health and social
care.
Surgical mortality increases with age due to several changes that occur due to ageing
making the elderly patient more dependent and subject to be cared for. One major
factor that is identified in hospitals was a failure to rescue the elderly patient in harm
and abuse. In the study by Ghaferi and Dimick, (2016) the result showed that macro
factors in the hospital such as nursing staff attitudes, technology and teaching status
were responsible for this but moreover micro actors were greatly responsible such as
resources, attitudes and behaviours. The study concluded that these factors can be
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improved by working on communication teamwork and safety culture of the
organization. This shows how communication in teamwork can enhance patient safety
and protection.
STUDY DESIGN AD METHOD
The study design is the referred to the overall design r structure of the study that the
author uses to integrate the different aspects of the research. The aim of the design is
to structure the aspects of the study incoherent and logical manner with the view of
addressing the research question and be able to answer it effectively using different
methods and tools (Munhall, 2012). It involves the aspects of data collection, analysis
and measurement according to the type of study. There are mainly four types of study
design that is descriptive, correlational, semi-experimental and experimental. This study
has mainly descriptive design as it uses different literature to address the research
problem and find relevant answers to it. Other methods such as correlational design use
different variables and statistical data to relate the concepts and experimental design
uses mainly primary data for the formulation of the hypothesis by experiments.
The research method is the process of collection of data and its analysis and it
determines the nature of research. There are majorly two research methods that are
primary and secondary. Primary researches use experimental data from the interviews,
questionnaire and surveys to formulate the conclusion of research whereas the
secondary researches include conduction of literature review which enables the author
to read various relevant articles and primary researches on the topic and use it for
reviewing and interpreting the answer for the chosen topic (Silverman, 2016). The given
research is secondary in nature as it uses the academic review as a method of data
collection.
DATA COLLECTION
Data is the matter or variables that are collected for the study to provide evidence for
the research topic (Marshall and Rossman, 2014). The data collection is the process by
which data for the study is being collected and utilized for structuring the research. This
study includes secondary data collection method as it will not conduct any primary
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experiments or surveys using interviews, focus groups or questionnaire but it will use
preexisting literature on the chosen topic for research, review the literature and form an
academic review. A literature review is a process of reviewing the relevant literature by
sorting it by means of inclusion and exclusion criteria set for the study. The inclusion
criteria for the study are the criteria by which the articles and studies are selected as per
relevancy to the topic (Flick, 2018). The process includes use of keywords and Boolean
system to find relevant literature in databases such as Google Scholar, PubMed,
Medline, Cinahl etc. the database process the keywords and shows relevant articles,
literature found relevant to it, from this the sorting of articles is done by inclusion and
exclusion criteria and most appropriate articles and researches are used to do the
review.
DATA ANALYSIS
Analysis refers to evaluating the findings received from the study to conclude the
research. The data being collected in the previous step is here analyzed to produce
answers to the research question. Data analysis includes basically two methods and is
based on either one of the depending on the nature of data, the qualitative method and
quantitative analysis method. Data analysis is a very crucial part of the study as it helps
in summarization of the data collection and finds the results of the study. The qualitative
analysis refers to subjective data analysis where the nature of data collected is non-
numerical and does not include any calculations or statistical analysis, it includes
statements, themes, fragments etc. that are subjective in nature. The quantitative
analysis is whereas done by correlating different statistical data and numerical concepts
in the study (Smith, 2015). In a qualitative research analysis, the author structure the
findings as per different data collected and arranging these data in a systematic manner
for better understanding the research problem. It involves reading large transcripts,
literature and identifying the valuable data and matter to find similarities and differences
and arranging it into the themes and developing categories to answer the research
question. This study uses thematic data analysis where data will be compared and
extracted to produce relevant themes.
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LIMITATIONS
The limitation is defined as the aspects of the study where the study limits and has
some disadvantages or lack some major details (Mackenzie, Tan, Hoverman and
Baldwin, 2012). Limitations are different for different study as the study here is
secondary in nature the imitations of secondary study will be discussed. The secondary
study has secondary data which is in itself weak and friable in nature, it is not as reliable
and viable as primary data as it is collected from sources and public sources that are
not very credible. The credibility of data in this kind of research is low due to secondary
in nature. The errors and bias in the primary researches used for review can get
incorporated into the current research without knowing and this can further reduce the
viability of the research. This can be controlled by following the inclusion and exclusion
criteria properly. The secondary research also has a limitation that they can only excess
the data available in public database and some important literature from private
databases and university sites cannot be accessed making the research skip important
data and literature. Time is also a constraint that is identified in this research, the lack of
adequate time makes the tedious and long sorting process difficult and may lead to
error.
ETHICAL CONSIDERATION
Ethics of research are the regulations and norms that a researcher has to follow in order
to foster the confidentiality and protection of the participants of the research. Ethical
considerations are a very essential part as research cannot be passed without getting
through all the considerations of research ethics. It includes the addition of a signed
consent of the participants and also a detailed understanding of the procedure of
research to the participants (Janssens and Kraft, 2012). The signed consent is a form
that makes participant aware of the research process and ensures complete
confidentiality and protection of their personal details. The consideration also involves
the protection of data from any kind of misconduct and exposure and preventing
disclosure of identities while the data is being used for further research work. In this
research as the secondary data is collected, it should be made sure that all the sources
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the data is collected from is reliable and the primary researches reviewed in the current
research has followed proper ethical considerations.
TEMPORAL PLAN
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Resear
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plannin
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Discuss
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aims
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objectiv
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Resear
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propos
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accepta
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Data
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Data
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Conclu
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Final
reportin
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REFERENCES
 Alonso, A. and Dunleavy, D., 2012. Building teamwork skills in healthcare: the
case for communication and coordination competencies. Improving patient safety
through teamwork and team training. Oxford: Oxford University Press, USA,
pp.41-58.
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 Craig, R., Moxey, L., Young, D., Spenceley, N.S. and Davidson, M.G., 2012.
Strengthening handover communication in pediatric cardiac intensive
care. Pediatric Anesthesia, 22(4), pp.393-399.
 Flick, U., 2018. An introduction to qualitative research. Sage Publications
Limited.
 Ghaferi, A.A. and Dimick, J.B., 2016. Importance of teamwork, communication
and culture on failure‐to‐rescue in the elderly. British Journal of Surgery, 103(2),
pp.e47-e51.
 Gluyas, H., 2015. Effective communication and teamwork promote patient safety.
Nursing Standard (2014+), 29(49), p.50.
 Janssens, A.C.J. and Kraft, P., 2012. Research conducted using data obtained
through online communities: ethical implications of methodological
limitations. PLoS medicine, 9(10), p.e1001328.
 Mackenzie, J., Tan, P.L., Hoverman, S. and Baldwin, C., 2012. The value and
limitations of participatory action research methodology. Journal of
hydrology, 474, pp.11-21.
 Marshall, C. and Rossman, G.B., 2014. Designing qualitative research. Sage
publications.
 Munhall, P., 2012. Nursing research. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
 O'leary, K.J., Sehgal, N.L., Terrell, G., Williams, M.V. and High Performance
Teams and the Hospital of the Future Project Team, 2012. Interdisciplinary
teamwork in hospitals: a review and practical recommendations for
improvement. Journal of hospital medicine, 7(1), pp.48-54.
 Ritchie, J., Lewis, J., Nicholls, C.M. and Ormston, R. eds., 2013. Qualitative
research practice: A guide for social science students and researchers. sage.
 Silverman, D. ed., 2016. Qualitative research. Sage.
 Smith, J.A. ed., 2015. Qualitative psychology: A practical guide to research
methods. Sage.
 Weller, J., Boyd, M. and Cumin, D., 2014. Teams, tribes and patient safety:
overcoming barriers to effective teamwork in healthcare. Postgraduate medical
journal, 90(1061), pp.149-154.
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