This guide outlines the important role that teamwork plays for nursing professionals, and why it is crucial.
Healthcare is a highly dynamic and volatile field with emerging diseases, novel viruses, technological advancements, and innovative treatment procedures altering its functioning. Amidst this, various healthcare professionals, from physicians, healthcare administrators, and nursing professionals, collectively strive to ensure optimal healthcare services.
And providing quality healthcare services necessitates interdependency since patients coming to the hospitals require collaborative efforts by various healthcare professionals to meet their healthcare needs. Therefore, teamwork and collaboration have become imperative to work in the healthcare sector.
Nursing professionals teamwork: overview
In the current environment, it is unlikely to find a patient under the care of one individual. It is often a collaborative effort of nursing professionals, physicians, healthcare managers, counselors, and others. All these individuals work in tandem with the patients and their families to provide optimal quality care and effective treatments.
For example, when nurses regularly communicate with doctors about the efficacy of a treatment or with therapists about the outcome of an intervention, they can better address the changes in a patient’s condition.
Significance of teamwork for nursing professionals
Collaborative efforts significantly improve patient outcomes and the effectiveness of healthcare services including nursing professionals. When working in teams, healthcare professionals with various skill sets and capabilities come together and respect the unique perspective of everyone in the group. Resultantly, they can better address multiple facets of a patient’s health.
Healthcare organizations worldwide promote teamwork and collaborative efforts, given its immense benefits. For this reason, it’s indispensable for the nursing profession and other healthcare professionals to hone essential collaboration skills.
By enrolling in higher degree programs, nursing professionals can sharpen various in-demand skills and propel their career advancement. For instance, the RN to BSN Degree program instills critical nursing skills that enable nurses to perform effectively in groups and enhance patient care delivery.
Advanced degree programs also familiarize nursing professionals with the emerging trends and latest information. Since the healthcare sector is susceptible to technological and environmental changes, expanding healthcare professionals’ knowledge base becomes crucial. Therefore, educational institutions must be credited for preparing nurses to work in a highly dynamic and evolving work environment.
Now, let’s discuss more convincing reasons teamwork is crucial in the nursing profession, especially for ensuring career success.
Offers personalized care
Personalized healthcare services have become incredibly popular in the healthcare arena. When nursing professionals regularly communicate with other healthcare providers about a patient’s condition, they’re able to offer customized and holistic care.
During collaborative team efforts, nurses discuss treatment plans with physicians and are more flexible when making changes. Given their constant interactions with patients, they can pinpoint even the most minor details to help other care providers ensure proper care delivery.
What’s more, this personalized care increases patient satisfaction, ultimately boosting the care facility’s reputation.
Higher job satisfaction
A nurse’s job is full of various stressors due to gruelingly long shifts and fluctuating work hours. For this reason, it’s essential for nurses to be satisfied with their work lest they face burnout. Nurses who face burnout or are unsatisfied with their work fail to deliver better patient care or garner positive patient outcomes.
A report published by the Society of Human Resource Management highlighted that teamwork is associated with better job satisfaction. Collaboration is equally important for the well-being of nurses. When nursing professionals work in collaborative teams, they know better what is happening around them and distribute tasks accordingly.
In teamwork, professionals with various skills and capabilities merge to provide holistic care to patients. Collaboration also promotes mutual trust when people get comfortable working with each other.
Reduced turnover rate
When nursing professionals get dissatisfied or disengaged with their work, they tend to quit. However, since teamwork significantly enhances job satisfaction, it ultimately reduces employee turnover.
Burnout is also one reason why many nurses leave their jobs, and the pandemic served as a bitter reminder of this reality. Increasing the burden on nurses instead of distributing it further aggravates the situation. For this reason, the hospital management should develop collaborative teams to distribute responsibilities equally.
Nurses working in teams willingly express their ideas, suggestions, and questions. At the same time, they get their “buddy” group to release stress. Moreover, nursing professionals working in teams remain more engaged since the distribution of work allows them to focus on the tasks at hand.
Conclusion
Undoubtedly, teamwork is essential for the success of every organization, and healthcare is no exception. Nurses collaborate with professionals from various areas of healthcare to provide holistic care to patients. Teamwork also improves mutual communication and collaboration among staff members. As a result, there’s a lesser chance of making costly medical errors and more instances of learning from each other.
Teamwork in nursing professionals also reduces gaps in service, resulting in positive patient outcomes and satisfactory treatment results. That’s precisely why nursing programs focus on developing nurses’ collaboration skills alongside other essential skills.
Additionally, collaborative work efforts minimize burnout and promote job satisfaction. Ultimately, hospitals with a satisfied nursing workforce also witness less employee turnover.
