Patient Teamwork

This article establishes that there are many differences in patient outcomes based on nurse-patient ratio in ICUs, looking at infection control in particular. One strength of this source is that the study has a lot of detail, and the methods are solid. It does back up my thesis that nurse-patient ratios are needed to save lives and reduce complications in hospital inpatients. However, a weakness of the source is that it was conducted in an ICU. Most patients in ICUs receive a high number of invasive

Teamwork and collaboration in nursing can be defined as the development of partnerships to achieve best possible outcomes that reflect the particular needs of the patient, family, or community, requiring an understanding of what others have to offer. (Giddens & Liesveld, 2013). This means that nurses are constantly working as a team to provide the best care for their patients. Working as part of a team may include listening to the client, getting help from another nurse to verify dosage calculations or working alongside the doctor to carefully facilitate their orders. I don’t believe any one nurse would be effective if they were working by themselves. The profession alone is demanding and one nurse working by themselves to assist the needs of more than one patient at a time would be dangerous.

The nursing teamwork survey is a 33 item questionnaire that finds information from the hospitals’’ staffs concerning the teamwork portrayed among the nurses. Through teamwork, it is expected that there will be an increase in the quality of work and service delivery. The 33-item questionnaire had a Likert type scale that helped in the estimation of the teamwork among nurses by placing them between “always” and “rarely” (Kalisch & Lee, 2011, p. 84). The nursing teamwork survey used literature

Courtenay, Nancarrow, and Dawson (2013) reviewed numerous articles that studied the effect of teamwork education (communication, cooperation, etc.) on the time and outcome of care. Courtenay et al. (2013) found that effective teamwork decreased the time necessary for critical treatments or surgery and also reduced the number of errors made. Courtenay et al. (2013) write that teams performed well when the responsibilities and role of each team member was known. Courtenay et al. (2013) also state that good teams shared an overall sense of mutual responsibility of the outcome of the patient.

In the era of globalization, interdisciplinary teamwork and interprofessional collaboration has been strongly encouraged in healthcare practices, especially for those situations requiring emergency treatment. In this paper, the author discussed

In order to fully explore the nature of team work in healthcare it is importance to first look at what defines a team.A team can be defined as two or more people with specific roles working together to achieve a common purpose(Kalisch & Begeny, 2005). For

Imagine you are in a boat, heading up stream you and your teammates had to get to the finish line first. The whole team was rowing at different times the boat would hardly move at all. In fact, it would be chaos as the current sucked you back toward the starting line. On the other hand if you worked concise as a team and rowed together you would get to the finish line first and hardly be effected by the current at all. This can be carried over into a hospital setting. The team of doctors and nurses face an uphill battle against the patient (the current) to get them to the finish line (curing the patient). If the team only does their individual roles it can anticipated the patient will get worse or could possibly die. However, if the team works together collaboratively, going above and beyond to fill their role, but also communicate to other team members, it would be safe the say the patient will be cured faster. According to QSEN, the definition of team work and collaboration is “Function effectively within

Jean Watson’s Caring theory has been used in the development of many nursing conceptual models (Fawcett & DeSanto Madeya 2013). One of the tools derived from this theory is the daily goals sheet used in a variety of ICU’s around the country (Fawcett & DeSanto Madeya 2013). The daily goals sheet was derived as a way to improve patient care by keeping the patient safe, provide reliable care, improve communication between doctors and nurses, and help the nurse plan for the day (Rehder, Uhl, & Mistry, 2012). According to Fawcett and DeSanto Maydeya (2013), the goal of Watson’s theory is to help nurses become more “nursing-qua-medicine,” where nursing “needs to emerge as mature health profession, capable of interfacing with the medical profession” (2013 p. 405-406). An interdisciplinary care team was used to implement a time with no interruptions between providers. This time was used to discuss the care of the patient, include families, and ensure that all members agree of the care to be provided (Rehder, Uhl, & Mistry 2012). By having the nurses be a part of this team, they are able to interact and be a member of the team, which is the goal of Watson’s caring theory (Rehder, Uhl, &Mistry 2012). If there is teamwork, and all the members of the team understand the goals, then the daily goals can help decrease length of stay (LOS) in ICU’s, decrease hospital acquired infections

One major overall strength I experience where I work that fosters teamwork and collaboration is the Rapid Response team. Here knowledge, skill, attitude and expertise are blended in an effort to deter rapid deterioration of the patient. At my institution an ICU nurse , respiratory therapist, an arrhythmia nurse, the charge nurse, nurse manager, bedside nurse , a patient tech , a transporter and pastoral care all partner all work together and share their inputs in a respective and controlled manner during this hectic time. Having a rapid response team gives the bedside nurse

Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety (TeamSTEPPS) is an evidence-based system designed to optimize patient care by improving communication and teamwork skills among health care professionals (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality [AHRQ], 2015). TeamSTEPPS® was developed by Department of Defense’s Patient Safety Program in collaboration with AHRQ and is scientifically rooted in more than 20 years of research (AHRQ, 2015). The TeamSTEPPS model develops knowledge, skills, and attitudes that influence team outcome success in the areas of leadership, communication, mutual support, and situation monitoring (Persily, 2013, p. 198). The TeamSTEPPS curriculum is customizable to any health care setting and

Teamwork in nursing is a little different that the teamwork of an actual team. In nursing, there is an ‘I’ in team, except here the ‘I’ stands for independent (QSEN Institute, 2015). Nurses and hospital faculty work their independent jobs, but communicate in order to give the patient the best care possible. Once again as stated before by Berman, the QSEN Institute believes that knowing your team 's strengths and weaknesses will also help you to be able to provide the best care possible.

Teamwork also reduces issues that lead to burnout. No longer is one person responsible for the patient’s health. Today, an entire team of health workers comes together to coordinate a patient’s well-being. Health teams help break down hierarchy and centralized power of health organizations, giving more leverage to health workers. Teamwork is centered on solid communication therefore patients and their families sometimes feel more at ease and report they accept treatments and feel more satisfied with their health care. Health workers are also found to be more satisfied with their work. A study found that health care workers who go through successful team building efforts are more satisfied with their work.

The team model allows the utility of nonprofessional nursing personnel such as LPNs and nursing assistants, through delegation and observation by an RN while holding a team leader accountable.( Tiedeman&Lookinland,2004) The focus is to work collaboratively and cooperatively with shared responsibilities, and to some extent accountabilities, for assessment, planning, delivering, and evaluation of patient care. ( Tiedeman&Lookinland,

Consequently, these positive outcomes will be attained if adequate staffing ratios are maintained. Poor quality of care, medication error, patient dissatisfaction will then be minimized in the intensive care setting (Griffiths et al., 2016). Lastly, staffing ratios have been structured by the amount of time a nurse spends in direct care. However, an increased amount of nurses’ time was spent in non-value-added activities and less time in necessary activities. These lead to neglect of patient care, needs and safety (Upenieks, V et.al., 2015). A nurse-patient levels as a contributor to poor patient outcomes such as errors, infections, prolonged length of stay, mortality, increased medical cost. Furthermore, many nurses in the intensive care unit, has contributions to morbidity of patients due to lack of critical care and attention. There is also an increase in the medical cost from increased length of stay of patients (Cho, S. H et al.,

During my own personal experience in nursing, I have had the opportunity to witness teamwork at its best, and shamefully, teamwork at its worst. During a shift on a neuro critical care floor, I was assisting a nurse turn and change a patient. Nearly every time we shifted the patient, an alarm would sound. Within moments there was a voice on the other side of the curtain asking if help was needed. Next time the alarm sounded; there was the helpful voice again. It never failed. How comforting for the nurse this must feel, and ultimately, better outcomes, as well as safety for the patient. At the other end of the spectrum, I have watched as a nurse asks for help, and is turned down multiple times. I have heard the awful phrase, “that’s not my job.” I have seen patients code, and the nurse spends the next hour caring for that patient including resuscitation, and transferring to an intensive care unit. No one takes the initiative to check on the nurses patients while she is gone, not even the charge nurse. Clearly this is not a positive or safe work environment for anyone. Teamwork