TEAM COLLABORATION IN HEALTH CARE

Elder Care in an Emergency Department

Elder Care in an Emergency Department

Introduction

The paper discusses the consequences and effects of teamwork and collaboration in a care management. I had to take an example of a care episode which involves a patient and the management of health care staff towards patient's treatment. The paper focuses on care episode of a patient named, Gordon who is in his 80, diagnosed to 'failure to thrive'.

The problem with this healthcare is that they do focus on the younger patients very well; however, they neglect the problems of elderly. The nurse team does not pay full attention to the elderly patients. Elderly patients in the Emergency Department (ED) receive a different level of care than younger patients. The ED disproportionately deploys resources to serve the needs of the younger patient population, a decision that appears to be mediated by the acuity of the patient's condition as defined by the institution. This paper seeks to examine the institutional work processes by which this disparity in care is created. By looking at the needs of the elderly as ED patients and based on what they identify as important to them, this paper examines the teamwork of the nurses, physicians, and administrators in the ED.

The research question is: Identify the team work and leadership style in the care episode of Gordon, a patient who is diagnosed as 'failure to thrive'.

How do the teams work?

One of the working conditions of psychological influences that most workers have in a positive way is one that allows for camaraderie and teamwork in the workplace where they serve, because teamwork can give very good results as normally generates enthusiasm for the result to be satisfactory in the tasks. In teams, rules are made, to be respected by all group members. They are rules of behaviour established by members of the team. These rules give each individual a basis for predicting the behavior of others and prepare an appropriate response. It includes the procedures used to interact with others. The role of standards in a regular group is organized as unit status and functions of individual members.

Multidisciplinary team

It involves group of individuals from various disciplines who belong to same organization and work together to meet needs of a task. By definition, a multidisciplinary team has potential expertise and diverse and complementary intervention to cope to various situations, and complex situations in facing people who uses its services. The composition of multidisciplinary teams is varied, both in number of disciplines involved and the number of members in each specialty. In the beginning of an activity, to plan it, using one of the known schemes, such as the log frame, is defined as the team consists of staff to address the problem (Adam 2003, 90).

If such a team can produce extraordinary results, it can also be a place of wasted energy, professional confrontation and general frustration. To allow a multidisciplinary team achieves optimal performance (the minimum energy invested for maximum results); ...