Interventions to enhance teamwork in healthcare professionals: a mini review

doi:10.15406/ncoaj.2018.05.00125

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,

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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.