Teamwork in healthcare organisations

Authors

  • M Gafa Primary Healthcare Department, Ministry of Health, Paola Government Dispensary, Paola, Malta.
  • A Fenech Department of Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Malta, Msida, Malta.
  • C Scerri Department of ClinicalPharmacology & Therapeutics, University of Malta, Msida, Malta
  • D Price University of Leicester Management Centre, KenEdwards Building, University Road, Leicester LE1 7RH, UK

Keywords:

The concept of teamwork represents the basis of a new paradigm and a shift from the traditional inter-professional boundaries. A questionnaire was developed to analyse potential benefits and/or limitations of teamwork, and to determine the importance and

Abstract

The concept of teamwork represents the basis of a new paradigm and a shift from the traditional inter-professional boundaries. A questionnaire was developed to analyse potential benefits and/or limitations of teamwork, and to determine the importance and existence of this notion with the Maltese public healthcare organisation. Of the 200 questionnaires distributed through email amongst employees within the Ministry of Health, 92 responses were received, giving a response rate of 46.5%. Whereas 40.2% stated that teamwork does exist locally, a slight majority remarked that teamwork doesn’t exist. Approximately 98% affirmed that it would be beneficial for a healthcare organisation to embrace the concept of teamwork. The majority believe that barriers are a reality that inhibit effective teamwork and deem that intraprofessional learning would aid health professionals to work and provide care together. The results indicate that teamwork is an important issue within the contemporary healthcare organisation.

References

Agius, E. (2001). Celebrating teamwork in healthcare. In M. N.Cauchi (Ed.),Inter-professional ethics in healthcare(pp. 47–59).Malta: Government Press.

Azzopardi Muscat, N. (1999a). Organisational structure andmanagement. In A. Dixon (Ed.),Healthcare systems in transition,Malta(pp. 9 – 10). European Observatory on HealthcareSystems.

Azzopardi Muscat, N. (1999b). Healthcare delivery system: Humanresources and training. In A. Dixon (Ed.),Healthcare systems intransition, Malta(pp. 60 – 69). European Observatory on Healthcare Systems.

Buttigieg, S. (2001). Teamwork and training of healthcareprofessionals. In M. N. Cauchi (Ed.),Inter-professional ethics in healthcare(pp. 10–16). Malta: Government Press.

Byrne, D. (2001). Public health in the European union: Breaking down barriers.Eurohealth,7(4), 2 –4.

Daft, R. (2003). Chapter 19: Teamwork in organisations. In R. Daft(ed.),Management, 6th ed. (pp. 614–636). Ohio, USA: South Western.

Duthie, C. (1999). Practice based pharmacists: Do patients and primary healthcare teams benefit? Primary Care Pharmacy,1(1),20–21.

Fitzgerald, N., Kos, M., & Sousa Pinto, G. (1999). EPSA-IPSFjoint document: Content of pharmaceutical education. In Pharmacy Education: A Vision of the Future: A Comprehensive Collaborative Study by Pharmacy Students Worldwide of Essential Developments in Pharmacy Education(pp. 33–39).

Firth-Cozens, J. (1998). Celebrating teamwork.Quality inHealthcare, (Suppl. 7), S3- S7.

Gafa`,M.,Bilbija,S.,Martinova,A.,&Bates,I.(2002).Pharmacoeconomics: A view of EPSA member countries on issues related to awareness of the topic and the undergraduate curriculum.Pharmacy Education,2(4), 171 –175.

Mc Nair, R., Brown, R., Stone, N., & Sims, J. (2001). Rural inter-professional education: Promoting teamwork in primaryhealthcare education and practice.Australian Journal of RuralHealth,9(Suppl. 1), S19–S26.

Mifsud, J., Agius, H., Busuttil, E., Ciappara, M., Ellul, B., Micallef,C. et al. (2001). Inter-professional ethics and pharmaceuticalissues. In M. N. Cauchi (Ed.),Inter-professional ethics inhealthcare(pp. 17–28). Malta: Government Press.

Pearson, P., & Jones, K. (1994). The primary healthcare non-team?British Medical Journal,309, 1387–1388.

Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB) and BritishMedical Association (BMA). (2000). Teamwork in primary healthcare: Realising shared patient aims in patient care.

Tufts Managed Care Institute. Teamwork in healthcare andprofessional training. Available at URL: http://www.tmci.org/downloads/topic5_01.pdf. Accessed: January 10, 2004.

Wagner, E. H. (2000). The role of patient care teams in chronic disease management. British Medical Journal,320, 569–572.

Downloads

Published

18-08-2018

How to Cite

Gafa, M., Fenech, A., Scerri, C., & Price, D. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare organisations. Pharmacy Education, 5(2). Retrieved from https://pharmacyeducation.fip.org/pharmacyeducation/article/view/151

Issue

Section

Research Article