| Learning Objective #1: The learner will be able to understand the reality of teamwork and leadership for an interdisciplinary medical team. | |||
| Learning Objective #2: The learner will be able to Describe the differences in perceptions of multi-professionals about teamwork. |
Medical care becomes specialized with medical advance. Medical care also has been transformed from one physician to many healthcare professionals, and the collaboration of interdisciplinary medical team is required increasingly. Many healthcare professionals are aware of the necessity working as a team, but some studies indicate dysfunction of interdisciplinary medical team on the real site of Japanese hospital.
This paper discusses the findings of a study on the reality of teamwork and leadership for interdisciplinary medical team acknowledged by professionals, and the differences in perceptions of those professionals about teamwork.
Methods:
The structured self-descriptive questionnaires were conducted with registered nurses (RN), medical doctors (MD), physical therapists (PT), and occupational therapists (OT) from the orthopedic departments and rehabilitation units in five middle-size hospitals in western part of Japan.
Results:
There were 289 responses with a valid response rate of 86.8 %; 171 RN, 19 MD, 55 PT, 44 OT.
About 80-90 % of all professionals perceived practice of interdisciplinary medical team. All professionals highly rated the sorts of occupation taking leading part in the present team were MD and RN.
Seven independent factors accounted for 60.0 % of total variance in the perceptions of interdisciplinary medical teamwork: information exchange in the team, personal positiveness, necessity of teamwork, professional independency, teamwork unification, equality among professinals, work burden. Some factors significantly differed in the professionals.
Conclusions:
All professionals practically need to understand that medical care is not performed by only one medical profession, and that all professionals compromise together for patient centered care. Although the sort of occupation to coordinate interdisciplinary medical team is not expected the particular occupation, all sorts of occupation should have the ability as a leader/coordinator in the team according to the condition and situation of a patient.