Teamwork is the idea of being able to work collaboratively within a group in order to “achieve a common goal” (Medical dictionary, n.d). Good teamwork is required because there is the common goal of getting the patient healthier whilst also providing a good experience for the patient. With good teamwork comes good communication to allow every member, not only the staff but the patient and their family too, to be well informed with the next steps in treatment. This brings increased patient satisfaction, outcomes and quality of the experience as there is better understanding so more effective steps can be taken. This idea of communication links both compassion and teamwork together as through good communication a doctor can be compassionate and by by being compassionate a doctor can obtain information from the patient. Therefore, there is teamwork between the patient and doctor simply through communication as there is now established trust in the relationship. Medical professionals should also be able to work efficiently in a team by writing information down accurately, ensuring that other members receive this information. Due to these mistakes, miscommunications or a lack of writing information down costs the UK more than £1 billion a year (Marie Curie, 2016). This shows that not only are the patients at risk, but the health services are also losing out on money that could be used elsewhere, rather than on something that could be easily solved through teamwork.
One personal experience demonstrating teamwork includes playing tennis tournaments against other tennis club, especially for doubles. We need to be able to keep eachother informed so that we can work effectively as one unit, with the goal of beating the opposing team. To ensure our teamwork is effective, we need the communication to be consistent to have an agreement towards how the next point should be played. This may not be just through verbal communication, but through hand gestures, which is especially important when the other person of the team is serving, linking back again to how compassion is also made up of nonverbal and verbal communication. In medicine, the same level of teamworking skills is needed for effective care. In one study that took place in Norway, the outcomes of patients that were urgently admitted to a medical ward was studied (Frydenberg and Bekke, 2013). There were 30 patients that were admitted to a hospital and the results showed that more than half were negatively affected due to the faulty administration of drugs. These incidents, stated in the conclusion of the case study, mentions the fact that doctors should have discussed the contents of the medical list with the patient and the rest of the medical team, not only to allow the patient to understand what they were taking, but also to go over the list again for any faults. The key skill that was lacking in this case was communication. Lack of communication meant lack of teamwork between the medical professionals and the patient which eventually led to patients falling ill again.
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Teamwork is prevalent in medical school especially in SGT’s and group projects such as presentations. There is a multitude of skills that medical students acquire that link into teamwork, such as communication. Communication is required to be able to ensure everyone is informed, and with good communication comes good listening. Listening is required to be able to listen to other people’s opinions and be able to come to an understanding so that everyone is following the right steps. These skills are relevant for our futures in the fact that as doctors we will be constantly moving to different hospitals, meaning we will be meeting new people constantly. As a result, we will need to be able to be effective at communication, to be able to become open with the medical team you work with, to ensure that there is good teamwork.
As a current medical student, I need to consider these skills into my current studies as well as my future clinical work in order to become an effective practitioner. Teamwork and compassion compliment eachother in that there are skills that link the two together including communication, organisation and listening. For there to be good teamwork amongst the medical team, members need to be supportive of eachother and this is done through compassion. The two skills work together for there to be the most effective care for the patient and there needs to be a balance between the two as well as individual skills to allow this to occur.
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