Team and Team Processess
Case Study: Team and Team Processes
Principles of Health Care Administration
Dr. Michelle Clemons
August 29, 2011
Case Study: Team and Team Processes
Apply your knowledge of teams and team processes to explain possible causes for team members’ experiences. What interventions can you recommend to address concerns expressed by Nurse B?
The case study refers to two different surgical teams, with a similar composition, that were affected very differently after implementing an innovative technology for cardiac surgery.
Traditionally, specially in the OR settings, there is a lot of routines and protocols with the goal of providing consistency of practice across different hospitals. In this setting, usually everybody knows what their role is, and the team members do perform in concert without needing to communicate a lot with each other, or at least they think so. As pointed out by Awad et al (2005), innumerous studies show that ineffective team communication frequently has been found to be at the root of medical errors. Even though is not possible to quantify the full magnitude of the medical errors, in 1999 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 hospitalized patients die annually in the United States (IOM, 2004).
A team is a group a people with complementary skills with the purpose of achieving common goals (Business Dictionary, n.d.). According to Johnson (2009), to be effective, teams must be properly designed and managed. A key component of a team success is inter-professional communication.
The case study clearly sets the two nurses experiences apart. Nurse A was part of a team that embraced the change, took the right steps to implement the change and understood the advantages of adopting this new technology. Effective communication and coordination among team members might have been the reason why they felt empowered and safe to speak up when something was
Principles of Health Care Administration
Dr. Michelle Clemons
August 29, 2011
Case Study: Team and Team Processes
Apply your knowledge of teams and team processes to explain possible causes for team members’ experiences. What interventions can you recommend to address concerns expressed by Nurse B?
The case study refers to two different surgical teams, with a similar composition, that were affected very differently after implementing an innovative technology for cardiac surgery.
Traditionally, specially in the OR settings, there is a lot of routines and protocols with the goal of providing consistency of practice across different hospitals. In this setting, usually everybody knows what their role is, and the team members do perform in concert without needing to communicate a lot with each other, or at least they think so. As pointed out by Awad et al (2005), innumerous studies show that ineffective team communication frequently has been found to be at the root of medical errors. Even though is not possible to quantify the full magnitude of the medical errors, in 1999 The Institute of Medicine (IOM) estimated that 44,000 to 98,000 hospitalized patients die annually in the United States (IOM, 2004).
A team is a group a people with complementary skills with the purpose of achieving common goals (Business Dictionary, n.d.). According to Johnson (2009), to be effective, teams must be properly designed and managed. A key component of a team success is inter-professional communication.
The case study clearly sets the two nurses experiences apart. Nurse A was part of a team that embraced the change, took the right steps to implement the change and understood the advantages of adopting this new technology. Effective communication and coordination among team members might have been the reason why they felt empowered and safe to speak up when something was
References: Awad, S. S., Fagan, S. P., Bellows, C., Albo, D., Green-Rashad, B., De La Garza, M., Berger, D. (2005). Bridging the communication gap in the operating room with medical team training. The American Journal of Surgery, 190 (2005) 770-774. Batool, H., & Riaz, S. (2011). Factors for making an organization ‘a learning organization’. Retrieved on August 26, 2011, from http://www.trikal.org/ictbm11/pdf/OB/D1132-done.pdf Institute of Medicine (2004). Patient safety: Achieving a new standard for care. Washington, D.C.: National Press. Johnson, J. A. (2009). Health Organizations: Theory, behavior, and development. Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett. O’Daniel, & M., Rosenstein, A. H. (n.d.). Professional communication and team collaboration. Retrieved on August 26, 2011, from http://www.ahrq.gov/qual/nurseshdbk/docs/O%27DanielM_TWC.pdf Roche, L., & Sadowsky, J. (2007). Providing a sense of deeper purpose: Leadership best practice. Retrieved on August 26, 2011, from http://www.mbaworld.com/blr-archive/scholarly/10/index.pdf Team. (n.d.) In Business dictionary. Retrieved on August 26, 2011, from http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/team.html