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eISSN: 2572-8474

Nursing & Care Open Access Journal

Mini Review Volume 5 Issue 2

Interventions to enhance teamwork in healthcare professionals: a mini review

Higinio Fernández Sánchez, María del Carmen Santes Bastian, Erika Mayte Del Ángel Salazar, Nazaria Martínez Díaz, David Hernández Zepeta, Mireya Cruz Ruiz

Facultad de Enfermería, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico

Correspondence: Higinio Fernández-Sánchez, Facultad de Enfermería, Universidad Veracruzana, Mexico, Tel (782) 8282024

Received: February 16, 2018 | Published: March 28, 2018

Citation: Fernández-Sánchez H, Santes-Bastian MC, Ángel-Salazar EMD, et al. Interventions to enhance teamwork in healthcare professionals: a mini review. Nurse Care Open Acces J. 2018;5(2):82-83. DOI: 10.15406/ncoaj.2018.05.00125

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Abstract

Introduction: Research has shown that patients’ perception of the care they received is considerably increased when members of the healthcare team work together.

Aim: Which are the interventions most used to enhance teamwork among healthcare professionals?

Discussion: A literature search was conducted in databases such as; DynaMed, EBSCO HOST, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Nature-International weekly journal of science and Wolters Kluwer Health, with the keywords from Medical Subject Heading (MESH) “Healthcare personnel”, “Healthcare teams” and “Intervention study”.

Conclusion: It is concluded that teamwork training is essential in order to provide high-quality and cost-effective care.

Keywords: intervention study, healthcare team, review

Introduction

Healthcare is a complex occupation that one professional can’t be held liable for it, but by a multidisciplinary team where each is responsible of carrying-out certain tasks depending on their profession, but they all have the common goal of improving the patients’ wellbeing.1 Research has shown that patients’ perception of the care they received is considerably increased when members of the healthcare team work together.1,2 Furthermore, interpersonal and communication skills in a team helps improve the job satisfaction among workers.2 Teamwork has been defined as “a positive work relationship among nurses or other personnel, but also as inter-professional relations, peer cohesion, social support, collaborative decision-making, and the amount of clinical support”.3 Researchers have found that teamwork and collaboration can help improve care processes while reducing the number of medical errors and increasing patient safety.4,5

Discussion

Eligibility criteria

A review was conducted among the scientific literature related to the interventions to enhance teamwork in healthcare professionals. The main question for this integrated review was “Which are the interventions most used to enhance teamwork among healthcare professionals”. To search and choose the studies, five databases were consulted: DynaMed, EBSCO HOST, Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), Nature-International weekly journal of science and Wolters Kluwer Health, with the keywords from Medical Subject Heading (MESH)6 “Healthcare personnel”, “Healthcare teams” and “Intervention study”, conducted between June and July 2017. Studies published in English and Spanish were included with abstracts and texts in full-length accessible.

Selection of studies

All studies discussing interventions to enhance teamwork in nursing professionals were included, regardless of the type of study.

Process for data collection

Firstly, members of the research team reviewed, analyzed and summarized the data from the studies individually, afterwards, the data was reviewed by another researcher of the team.

Characteristics of selected studies

The investigations contemplated, were the studies to enhance teamwork in healthcare professional published in the languages ​​mentioned above.

Conclusion

After the literature search, eight studies were identified and analyzed in full, four articles were selected, they are described in Table I. The Level of Evidence was considered according to the Evidence-based nursing care guidelines: Medical-surgical interventions”.7

Reference Aim Method Active ingredients and components Results Level of evidence
P McCulloch, J Rathbone, K Catchpole8 To capture all studies of interventions with healthcare workers and healthcare teams designed to facilitate teamwork and communication skills.  A systematic Literature review of Randomized and non-randomized Controlled Trials.  8 studies: Non-technical skills or teamwork performance. 7 studies: Safety cultura 8 studies: Changes in technical performance or error 3: Changes in clinical outcomes 6 of 8 studies found a positive effect on teamwork behavior. 5 of 8 studies found improvement for technical performance. Half of studies measuring safety culture found benefits from teamwork training. Level I

Table 1 Summary findings of selected studies

 

Healthcare is a multifaceted entity that requires a group of multiple, talented experts, like nurses, physicians and psychologists to provide high-quality care. It has been shown that teamwork training is essential in order to provide high-quality and cost-effective care. The authors of this integrative review, conclude that teamwork can be enhanced when components such as interpersonal and communication skills are developed, while improving team behaviors that will help lower errors in the clinical setting.

Acknowledgements

None.

Conflict of interest

The author declares that there is no conflict of interests.

References

  1. O Daniel, Rosenstein. Professional communication and team collaboration. In: Hughes RG, editor. Patient safety and quality: an evidence-based handbook for nurses. Rockville (MD): Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). Chapter 33. 2008.
  2. Global Resource Center. Why is teamwork in health care important? 2018.
  3. Schalk DM, Bijl MLP, Halfens RJG, et al. Interventions aimed at improving the nursing work environment: a systematic review. Implement Sci. 2010;5(34):2–11.
  4. Xu JH. Toolbox of teaching strategies in nurse education. Chin Nurs Res. 2016;3(2):54–57.
  5. Moreno-Fernández MT. Análisis del trabajo en equipo entre enfermeras y auxiliaries de enfermería, según los distintos modelos de organización de enfermería. Universidad Pública de Navarra. 2015.
  6. Medical Subject Headings. [MeSH subject heading scope note]. 2018.
  7. Ackley BJ, Swan BA, Ladwig G, et al. Evidence-based nursing care guidelines: Medical-surgical interventionsSt. Louis MO: Mosby Elsevier; 2008.
  8. McCulloch P, Rathbone J, Catchpole K. Interventions to improve teamwork and communications among healthcare staff. Brit J Surg. 2011;98(4):469–479.
  9. Kalisch BJ, Aebersold M, McLaughlin M, et al. An intervention to improve nursing teamwork using virtual simulation. West J Nurs Res. 2015;37(2):164–179.
  10. Thomas EJ, Taggart B, Crandell S, et al. Teaching teamwork during the neonatal program: a randomized trial. J Perinatol. 2007;27(7):409–414.
  11. Morey JC, Simon R, Jay GD, et al. Error reduction and performance improvement in the emergency department though formal teamwork training: evaluation results of the MedTeams Project. Heal Ser Res. 2002;37(6):1553–1581.
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©2018 Fernández-Sánchez, et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and build upon your work non-commercially.