Analyzing Teamwork Theories and Consequences in Optometry

This essay analyzes teamwork in the field of optometry, focusing on the application of teamwork theories, particularly Belbin's theory, to the profession. It explains the roles within an optometry team, including optometrists, opticians, ophthalmologists, nurses, and other healthcare providers, and how their collaboration ensures quality patient care. The essay highlights the consequences of poor teamwork, such as misdiagnosis, redundancy in patient care, increased costs, and, in severe cases, life-threatening outcomes, using real-world examples to illustrate the importance of effective collaboration. The conclusion emphasizes the need for ongoing research and education on teamwork to improve patient outcomes in optometry.

Running head: PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION TO HEALTH1
Professional Orientation to Health
Name
Institutional Affiliation

PROFESSIONAL ORIENTATION TO HEALTH 2
Globally job descriptions are evolving to require individuals to work in teams to
achieve goals set by organizations. From the past, people have been encouraged to work together
with sayings such as two heads are better than one being passed on through generations to
encourage teamwork (1). Therefore, teamwork is described as a collaborative effort by a group
of people who have a common goal to achieve and the effort is meant to achieve this.
Specifically, teamwork in healthcare is described as where two or more individuals
interdependently interact with each other with a common goal to achieve in terms of healthcare.
Most professionals in the health sector work in collaboration with each other even though they
belong to different departments with the goal of providing quality and all-around care for a
patient (2). This essay will assess theories of teamwork in relation to activities in the optometry
profession and the consequences of poor teamwork in the profession.
Optometry is a branch of healthcare which deals with the act of assessing individual’s
eyesight, prescribing them with corrective lenses and also testing and detecting cases of eye
disease. Optometrist work in conjunction with other health care providers such as opticians to
provide services for the patient in that the optometrist will prescribe a corrective lens and refer
the patient to an optician who is specialized in designing and fitting of lenses and frames for the
patient. The Belbin’s theory of teamwork can be applied to different aspects of eye care and the
theory states that in any team there are nine distinct roles that need to be fulfilled by different
team members so that the common goal can be achieved (2). These roles are coordinator,
resource investigator, and assessor, monitor evaluator, completer finisher, teamwork, specialist,
shaper, plant, and implementer. However, this does not mean that there should be nine team
member to perform the nine roles in the group as an individual can fulfill two or three roles at the
same time. When this theory is applied it enables people to assess themselves and therefore have

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a greater understanding of self in regards to their own strength. Therefore, when they do a self-
assessment, they will be able to find out what areas they are meant to improve on and also they
find out which of the nine roles they are best suited to perform resulting in ease of competition of
group objectives. Understanding what roles an individual plays in a team will inform the
decision while compiling a team ensuring it is balanced by ensuring each member fulfils a role
unique to them (3).
In relation to optometry, this theory can be applied to everyday working in terms of the
different roles that other health professionals perform in terms of eye care for a patient. Some of
the different team roles that work in conjunction with optometrists are the ophthalmologist
nurses and clinical officers and opticians who all work together to ensure the patient has a good
experience, have the issue with their eyesight resolved and this is done by ensuring that everyone
knows what role to fulfil (3). Hence, in this case, it is important when a patient comes in they
should go through the different member of the eye care team to ensure all bases are covered from
diagnosis of the eyesight issue, to treatment by prescription lenses to giving the patient the
complete set of glasses to deal with their eye issues and this is only done when there is a well-
oiled eye care team in place. Also, optometrists work in conjunction with other health care
providers such as surgeons and general practitioners to diagnose and treat symptoms related to
the eye, for example, diabetes patients are referred to them by their doctors when they are
suffering from issues with their eyesight (4).
There are consequences that come up when there is poor teamwork while working as an
optometrist. One consequence of poor collaboration is in situations where the patient is not
diagnosed correctly. When the team does not collaborate, it may lead to situations where the
patient is misdiagnosed; since each person fulfils a role they are specialized in. Therefore, if

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people do not work together it may require people to assume roles they are not meant to take on
leading to such a situation (4). It can also lead to redundancy in the patient care whereby the
different people who are supposed to work together to deal with the health of a patient and
specifically in regard to their eyesight fail to do so. It may also lead to situations where each of
them has to redo the workup of the patient. However, if there was good teamwork, each of the
different people would have done their work and pass it on to the next professional in the chain
of command hence reduce redundancy, reduce the cost incurred by the patient and ensure they
receive fast and quality care for their eyesight (5). Next, the most serious consequence is death
which results when optometrists do not work together with others to give the patient all rounded
care and when they discover an illness they should refer the patient to the right health care
practitioner which does not occur with poor collaboration. Such an example is the case of Vinnie
of Ipswich, Suffolk, on February 2012 who lost his life to undiagnosed hydrocephalus after an
optometrist failed to refer the patient after she was told that the eye sockets were swollen which
is a symptom of the disease. The death occurred simply since she did not refer the child to the
right practitioners who would have treated the child (6).
In conclusion, fields such as optometry are quite important in people’s lives since they
deal with an individual's health making it necessary that the profession runs smoothly.
Teamwork is one way to ensure that the activities of an optometrist run smoothly hence it is
necessary to learn about how to this well to successfully venture into the profession. Therefore
learning about theories of teamwork and how they apply to different parts of my profession and
also the consequences when there is poor teamwork will mould me into a better professional.
Hence more research should be done on teamwork in the profession to better inform the
practitioners.

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References
1. Millodot M. Dictionary of Optometry and Vision Science E-Book. Elsevier Health
Sciences; 2017 Oct 19.
2. Belbin RM. Team roles at work. Routledge; 2012 May 23.
3. Lingard L, McDougall A, Levstik M, Chandok N, Spafford MM, Schryer C.
Representing complexity well: a story about teamwork, with implications for how we
teach collaboration. Medical education. 2012 Sep;46(9):869-77.
4. Mackintosh S, Mcclure D. (A157) Interprofessional Education as a Vehicle to Instill
Teamwork Mentality for Disaster Preparedness and Response in Healthcare Professional
Students. Prehospital and Disaster Medicine. 2011 May;26(S1):s45-.
5. Smith KA. Health care interprofessional education: Encouraging technology, teamwork,
and team performance. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing. 2014 Apr
1;45(4):181-7.
6. Hrynchak PK, Spafford MM. Optometry Students' Attitudes about Team-Based
Learning. Optometric Education. 2015 Jan 1;40(2).