Building and Maintaining Coherent and Strategic Nursing Teams
Nursing is the largest healthcare profession in the US. Today’s nursing practice focuses on offering holistic care that caters to a patient’s physical, emotional, and spiritual needs. In essence, nursing in the current world is no longer a solitary profession. Regardless of the healthcare facility, strong teamwork is crucial to facilitate effective holistic nursing care. This article discusses factors to consider when building and maintaining a coherent, strategic nursing team.
The Importance of Nursing Teams
What is teamwork in nursing?
Teamwork in nursing is a patient-centered practice based on shared responsibilities and goals among nurses. The approach leverages each nursing team member’s unique strengths and skills to enhance the delivery of high-quality and effective care tailored to suit a patient’s individual needs.
Importance of teamwork in nursing
Building and maintaining coherent and strategic nursing teams is essential for delivering high-quality services to achieve organizational goals. Solid teamwork improves nurses’ ability to provide patient care and increase positive health outcomes while fostering a positive work environment. Here are some crucial benefits of improving teamwork in nursing teams.
Improved patient care
Healthcare professionals serve patients not as individual providers but as part of multidisciplinary teams. These teams include nurses, specialists, and primary care physicians. Nurses often collaborate with all these individuals to achieve the common goal of enhancing the patient’s health and wellbeing. Using teamwork skills helps them offer consistent care to each patient, ultimately improving their experience and health outcomes.
Effective teamwork also enhances accountability while helping make the treatment process safer. When teams can communicate often, nurses gain insightful suggestions regarding the best ways to manage patient care.
Enhances efficiency
When multiple nursing professionals work together as a team, they can delegate tasks effectively and determine the most efficient way to achieve their goals. The professionals leverage teamwork skills to serve more patients and provide high-quality care resulting in more efficient processes. Efficiency ensures various teams maximize the value of available resources.
Build strong professional relationships
Nurses who work collaboratively learn about one another’s strengths and weaknesses. Through effective communication and collaboration, nurses grow their professional networks while inspiring each other to attain career goals and share expertise. This ultimately boosts strong nursing and interdisciplinary relationships.
Increased job satisfaction
Nursing careers are among the most demanding jobs that require extended work hours in high-stress situations. Professionals in this field must maintain a high job satisfaction level to minimize the risks of burnout. Studies reveal that collaborative relationships among nurses enhance better job satisfaction. Generally, when nurses work collaboratively with teams, they tend to be happier with their daily workplace duties. In essence, establishing solid teams in the workplace will also extend to patient satisfaction.
Enhanced professional accountability
Great teamwork in nursing increases professional accountability. In a team-oriented setting, nurses share responsibilities and tasks related to patient care. This distribution of tasks ensures that each team member is accountable for specific aspects of patient care. When everyone knows their role and is held accountable for their duties, it reduces the likelihood of essential tasks falling through the cracks.
Improves workplace communication
Effective communication is essential in every healthcare environment. When team members openly discuss patient conditions, treatment plans, and care goals, it results in a more comprehensive understanding of the patient’s needs. This shared information promotes a collective sense of responsibility for the patient’s wellbeing and ensures that critical details are not overlooked.
Reduced risk to the patient
Studies estimate that over 250,000 preventable deaths occur annually within the US healthcare system. Effective teamwork improves communication while reducing the risk of medication errors, erroneous therapies, and treatment delays. When professionals work as a team, they enhance the safety of patients.
Factors to consider when building coherent nursing teams
There are several key factors that play an integral role in ensuring the effectiveness and success of nursing teams. These include cultural competency, diversity, education, and a reward-based team structure.
Consider cultural competency
In any healthcare setting, both healthcare professionals and patients come from various cultural, ethnic, and religious backgrounds. Cultural competency refers to the ability of the nursing teams to understand and effectively communicate with individuals from diverse cultural backgrounds. A culturally competent nursing team fosters a positive work environment where team members respect each other’s differences and work together harmoniously.
This collaboration improves overall team dynamics and enhances the quality of care provided to patients. In essence, fostering an effective team involves creating an inclusive and respectful environment where all contributions are appreciated, and patient care is delivered with sensitivity and respect for cultural differences. Here are some crucial tips for creating a culturally competent nursing team:
- Provide cultural awareness training: Providing cultural competence training to team members can be a great way to enhance cultural competence in nursing teams. The training should focus on aspects of diverse cultures, including communication styles, health beliefs, and practices.
- Encourage open communication: Create an environment that fosters open communication among team members. A warm environment where all team members feel free to express their ideas and opinions regardless of cultural background makes members feel valued and heard.
- Assign roles appropriately: When assigning roles and responsibilities to team members, consider their cultural backgrounds and expertise. Leverage the diverse skills of teams to enhance efficiency and quality care.
- Address biases and stereotypes: Cultural competence requires an understanding of unconscious biases. Any biases or stereotypes that could arise within the team should be identified and addressed effectively.
- Deliver culturally competent patient care: When delivering patient care, nursing teams should be mindful of their cultural needs. This requires teams to recognize and respect each patient’s cultural preferences, values, beliefs, and practices.
Diversify the members
Embracing diversity in nursing teams benefits patients and enhances the overall quality of care while enriching the work environment for teams. Generally, nurses are more likely to stay in an environment where they feel valued, respected, and supported. Promoting a diverse workplace can be a great way to attract a broader pool of talent and improve staff retention. In addition, diverse nursing teams bring various perspectives and experiences to the table.
This diversity of thought enhances problem-solving abilities and promotes creativity in finding innovative solutions to complex healthcare challenges. In essence, patients are more likely to feel comfortable and understood when cared for by nurses who share similar backgrounds and can relate to their individual experiences. Therefore, a diverse nursing team is crucial to enhancing patient satisfaction, leading to better adherence to treatment plans and enhanced overall health outcomes. Here are some ways to enhance diversity in nursing teams:
Tailor recruitment practices
Actively promoting diversity in recruitment and outreach efforts will attract a wider pool of candidates. Implement blind resume screening to minimize unconscious bias during the hiring processes.
Offer diversity training
Regular diversity training for all staff members, including nurses and doctors, promotes a diverse and coherent workplace. The training helps build a more inclusive and respectful work environment.
Encourage diverse leadership
Encourage nurses from diverse backgrounds to take on leadership roles and responsibilities. This may require establishing mentorship and sponsorship programs to support the career growth of underrepresented groups within the nursing team.
Collaborate with educational institutions
Work together with educational institutions to establish connections for potential nursing candidates from diverse backgrounds.
Determine the level of education
The education level of nursing teams is crucial for a highly efficient team. This is because divergent educational backgrounds determine the degrees of expertise and specialization, and having a mix of educational backgrounds allows the team to address diverse patient needs effectively.
As each level of nursing education comes with its own scope of practice and responsibilities, it is crucial to align the roles of different team members based on their expertise. This will not only enhance teamwork, but it will also promote patient care and safety. Once the educational level of team members is assessed, it can be determined whether additional training through advanced education is essential.
Here are some ways training helps build a great nursing team.
Improved specialization
As healthcare evolves and becomes more complex, nursing roles are evolving as well. Advanced education equips nurses with the skills needed to adapt to these changes and meet evolving patient care demands. When each team member has a unique set of skills, they can complement each other’s abilities and fill in the gaps. This fosters a sense of reliance on one another and encourages collaboration.
Enhanced communication
Advanced training often focuses on interactive and scenario-based learning, which can improve communication among team members. Members are equipped with the skills to share information, delegate tasks, and effectively provide clear instructions. This ultimately minimizes the chances of errors and misunderstandings.
Boost confidence and competence
Studies have revealed that advanced training improves the competence level of professionals. Higher competence gives rise to increased confidence in abilities. When team members are confident in their abilities, they contribute effectively to the team, leading to better decision-making and an enhanced level of trust among colleagues.
Shared knowledge and best practices
The nursing profession advances at dizzying speeds. Advanced training exposes team members to the latest research, practices, techniques, and industry trends. When team members share this knowledge with their colleagues, it raises the overall standard of care provided by the team.
Implement an appropriate rewards system
Receiving recognition for great teamwork helps nurses stay committed to collaborating amongst themselves. This is why it is crucial to consider an appropriate rewards system to motivate team members for their collaborative efforts. Different team members may have varying preferences when it comes to rewards, however. While some prefer monetary incentives, others may value additional time off or professional development opportunities. Organizations should therefore strive to tailor rewards to suit individual preferences whenever possible. Here are other tips for implementing an effective rewards program for exceptional team players:
- Offer inclusive rewards: Ensure that the rewards system is inclusive and accessible to all team members, regardless of their role or level in the team.
- Use transparent criteria: Make the criteria for earning rewards clear and transparent to avoid any perception of favoritism or bias. This clarity encourages fair competition and a sense of achievement.
- Provide continuous feedback: Provide ongoing feedback to team members about their progress toward goals and how their efforts are making a difference. Regular feedback helps team members stay on track and motivated.
- Evaluate rewards system: Continuously assess the effectiveness of the rewards system. Collect feedback from team members to gauge their satisfaction and adjust if necessary.
Establish and reinforce team goals
Establishing common goals is crucial for a team to work harmoniously. Well-thought-out goals help benchmark results for the team to work towards attaining. An example of a team goal is enhancing patient satisfaction by a given percentage. If the team achieves the goal, they earn a reward. Visible reminders, such as a chart displaying a graph with patient satisfaction scores, can help motivate the team.
How to become a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree
It is possible to change an initial career to nursing once an individual has completed a degree in a different subject like finance, music, or restaurant management. For anyone who has been wondering how to become a registered nurse with a bachelor’s degree, Spring Arbor University’s online Master of Science in Nursing (MSN) programs can help dedicated healthcare professionals answer the call to serve others. These programs provide the necessary steps, education, and nursing tools to advance a nursing career and achieve personal goals. Here are the steps to becoming a registered nurse:
- Enroll for an accelerated BSN program: An accelerated BSN program is a popular fast-track option for obtaining a Bachelor of Science in nursing degree. The accelerated program takes anywhere between 12 to 19 months based on the program structure and intensity.
- Take the NCLEX-RN exam: After obtaining a nursing degree, students sit the NCLEX-RN exam. The NCLEX-RN is a standardized exam that assesses readiness to practice as a registered nurse. Passing the exam is crucial to becoming a registered nurse.
- Obtain EN licensure: Once students have passed the NCLEX-RN, they will officially become registered nurses. The state’s nursing board will issue an RN license, allowing them to practice as an RN in that state.
Teamwork is crucial for a successful nursing career
Today’s healthcare industry is anchored around a multidisciplinary approach focusing on effective patient care. As such, nurses are a crucial part of a broader clinical team, including specialists and physicians. This team of professionals must work collaboratively in a well-organized manner to ensure comprehensive care of patients. As such, teamwork in nursing is essential for enhancing patient care, ensuring patient safety, fostering efficient workflows, and creating a positive work environment.
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