Care Management Episode That Requires the Role of Team Work - Essay Example

Team working Instructor’s name: Course code: Date of submission: Introduction When accomplishing complex tasks, it comes very difficult for an individual to succeed on his own. It’s therefore encouraged that when an individual faces a tough challenge that he cannot handle by himself, he should ask for assistance from other people since two heads are better than one and will always be. ‘Unity is strength’, many scholars have come to agree with this saying since it’s been very difficult for individuals to accomplish huge tasks all by themselves (Ivy, 2009). In every aspect of life, one needs the support of fellow peers for him to develop exceptionally well and achieve outstanding results in his endeavors. These are some of the reasons why team working is highly recommended in learning institutions, business organization, health institutions, sporting activities and the society at large. A team is basically a group of people who have come together to achieve a common goal. For example, for patients to enjoy outstanding services and their needs to be fully satisfied, the health workers should work together when providing health services to patients. By sharing information and ideas and helping one another learn how to offer outstanding health services to patients, service delivery in health centers will be of good quality and the needs of users of health services will be satisfied fully (Jerry, 2002). For a team to be effective and achieve the set goals and objectives, all the team members have to commit themselves fully to the activities of the group. They should first appoint a team leader who is much skilled than all the members within the group and set out rules to govern group activities. Tasks should be divided among the group members and completed within the specified period of time. By doing so, it will be very easy for group’s goals and objectives to be achieved. In this report, the researcher will attempt to analyze and explain all issues associated with team, team working, collaboration, negotiation and leadership in health and social care institutions. 2.0 One care management episode that requires the role of team work The most important place that team work must exist is in health and social care institutions. Patients who seek health and care services are in most case at the risk of losing their lives. The health and social care workers have the responsibilities to maximize their abilities in their attempt to save lives (Ivy, 2009). In most underdeveloped countries, health and care institutions are facing tough challenges due to the lack of sufficient resources to operate smoothly and offer quality services to users of health and social care services. This has been resulting to a huge number of patients losing their lives when accessing services in those institutions. However, the World Health Programme that has collaborated with many health institutions, governmental institutions and non-governmental institutions has contributed significantly to the improvements of hospitals in underdeveloped and developing countries. Betty (2008) argues that difficulties that are experienced in health and social care institutions require team work for such problems to be solved exceptionally well. Take for example, a cardiac arrest situation in a ward. A cardiac arrest situation is simply a scenario whereby a patient’s heart stops pumping blood as normally expected. The blood circulation within the patient’s body stops and the risk of him losing his life is very high indeed. The doctors who come to attend to the patient, the crash team, the anesthetist and the nurses involved in saving life of the patient need to work together with the same voice for them to succeed in saving the life of the patient (Lee, 2008). Before any decisions are made in the process, consultation should take place so that good decisions are made. The responsibility of health and social care workers is to offer all they can to help improve and safe lives of patients. In the cardiac arrest situation, one nurse cannot succeed in saving the life of the patient (Boniface, 2004). He needs the help of fellow nurses and doctors who are highly qualified and experienced in such situations. Things have to be done with speed for the patient life to be saved and team work will be very instrumental since one nurse will doing one thing as another does the other and at last unity is strength and the life of the patient may be likely to be saved. The doctors and nurses involved in such practice due to the concept of team working will share ideas and information from their skills, knowledge and experiences and come up with ways to save the life of the patient. 3.0 Main body of the essay 3.1 Ways in which teams work and the impact to patient care and team performance As defined early, a team is a group of people who have come together to accomplish a common goal. All the team members are of great value to their team and respect must exist within the team for goals and objectives set to be easily realized. A health and social care institutions is a good example of a team since health and social care workers come together with the main aim of improving and saving the lives of patients. All team members needed to be equally treated and no one should be seen of great importance than the other (Maurice, 2008). The most important factor that enhances achievement of team’s targets and goals is the commitment of each team member to all the team activities. Failure is easily experienced in teams that are lacking well skilled and experienced leaders. Therefore, before a team starts a team leader should be appointed by the team members who will be responsible for spear heading all the activities of the group. The group leaders needs to possess the appropriate leadership skills and has been able to practically prove that he is leader. In a health and social care institution, the team leader is basically the top management which in most cases consists of professors in health and social care issues (Evans, 2008). The team leader is responsible for setting the goals and objectives of the team together with his members and outlines the rules and regulations to govern the team. In a health and social care institution, the top management outlines the goals and objectives of the institution and set organizational policies together with members of the organization in order to promote motivation of organization’s members to display democracy within the organization. Non-discriminatory, equality and quality of services policies are some of the rules and policies that guide behaviors of members of a health and social institution. Working in teams in a health and social care institution is very instrumental in the achievement of the institution’s goals and services (Lee, 2008). Once health and social care workers work together, the quality of health and social care services rendered to patients are outstanding. These workers speed up the process of patient care and share information and ideas of how to improve health and social care services hence benefiting the patient in terms of health and social care services received. In the cardiac arrest situation, nurses and doctors work together and share all necessary information that could assist in the process of saving the patient’s life. The lessons learnt by the nurses and doctors in this situation are very helpful in the future. In case, the same situation is experienced the next time round, it will be easy for the nurses and the doctors to save the life of the patient in the cardiac arrest state since all that needs to be done is already known and this time round will be done with speed. The selection of the appropriate leader to guide the group, the commitment of team members and the free will to share information is very instrumental in the performance of the team (Kelly, Ramsey and David, 2000). In the cardiac arrest situation, the commitment of each nurse and doctor to save the life of the patient will of great importance towards the achievement of the goal. Once nurses and doctors freely share what they know about cardiac arrest and perform assigned tasks exceptionally well, the possibility of saving the patient’s life will be very high. Team working in health and social care institutions generally improves the quality and services offered in these institutions and it becomes easy for them to achieve their specified goals and objectives. 3.2 Review of literature Scholars argue that regardless of the nature of an organization, the most important thing is how its members work and their commitment to the organization and its operations (Ivy, 2009). It becomes very easy for the organization to achieve its goals and objectives when all its members are helping each in their day to day activities and the commitment of its members is very high. This simply means that in business organizations and health and social care organizations, team working is very vital in the realization of goals and objectives of these institutions. The main objective of a health and social care institution is to offer outstanding services to patients and to maximize its abilities in improving and saving lives of patients. For this to become a reality, the top management of the organization has to execute its responsibility of sourcing all the necessary resources required in the smooth flow of the organization’s resources exceptionally well. The management should ensure that the organization has the best facilities needed for production of exceptional health and social care services (Herbert, 2005). It should ensure that the doctors and nurses employed in the institution are well qualified in terms of skills, knowledge and experience. The style of leadership that should be implemented in the institution should be appropriate and promote employee morale and team working within the institution. The most preferred leadership style in health and social care institution is the democratic leadership style. This style involves organization’s members in the decision making process of the organization and all the projects that the organization is involved in. This does not only motivate institution’s members to commit themselves to the organization but encourages creativity and motivation within the organization. Improved ways of rendering health and social care services are invented in the institution due to creativity and innovation that is well promoted within the organization. Due to high employee morale, the services that will be rendered by the health and social care workers will be outstanding and this will be of great benefit to the users of health and social care services. Team working that is encouraged by the democratic leadership style in health and social care institution speeds up the process of health and social care services delivery (Grapy and Laura, 2003). Patients are well attended to and in the required time and this will make patients be satisfied by the services offered in the health and social care institution. Once patients are fully satisfied by the services offered by the institution, its reputation will be promising and this will enable the institution to be well recognized and win awards that will enable it acquire high quality technology that will improve its service delivery process and the outcomes of its services. The United Kingdom’s policies that discourage discrimination in health and social care organizations are the non-discriminatory law and the equality law. These two laws promote team work in health and social care institution since all organization’s members relate absolutely well with each other. Team working in the organization will facilitate exchange of ideas and information between the institution’s doctors and nurses and this in one way or another will improve the quality of health and social care services offered in the institution (Gregory, 2004). In reference to the cardiac arrest case, the innovativeness, creativity and team working of doctors and nurses and their speed of service delivery will be very important in the process of saving the patient’s life. It will be easy to come up with appropriate means to save the patient’s life since two heads are better than one as stated at the beginning of this essay. This basically means that it will be very difficult for a single doctor or nurse to succeed in saving the life of the patient in a cardiac arrest state. The doctor needs the assist of fellow professional to succeed in this mission since it is very complex and complicated and therefore needs collaborative thinking and physical assistance. From the above past studies, we can see that for any organization to achieve its set goals and objectives, team work has to exist within the organization. The management of the organization should play its part appropriately and avail all the necessary resources needed by the organization teams in their quest to realize their goals and objectives. Therefore, team working is highly recommended in health and social care institutions and the top management should apply leadership styles that promote team working, creativity and innovation. 3.3 Effectiveness of a team The commitment of group members is what makes a team effective. A team has its goals and objectives that it desires to achieve. The contribution of each team member is of great importance to the achievement of these goals and objectives. The team members should be careful when appointing their team leader since he plays a huge role in all the activities of the group (Faith, 2009). He is responsible for outlining plans on how the goals and objectives of the team will be met, heading all the team meetings, allocating duties and responsibilities to team members and monitoring closely the performance of each member. The leader should therefore posses all the necessary leadership skills such as negotiation skills, problem solving skills, team working skills, management skills, creativity and innovation skills among others. Evans (2008) argues that the qualifications of the team leader are very instrumental towards the effectiveness of the team. A good team leader makes his team effective by coming up with exceptional leadership strategies and plans to achieve all the group’s goals and objectives exceptionally well. He should come up with ways to motivate all his team members in a way that they highly commit themselves to all the activities of the team. By doing so, they all contribute significantly towards the good performance of the team. Since a health and social care institution is an example of a team, the top management of the organization plays a huge role in the performance of the institution. It should apply leadership styles that motivate all organization’s members and promote team working within the organization since its one of the vital ways that facilitates achievement of organization’s goals and objectives (Evelyn, 2008). In order to make the operations of the organization highly effective and experience production of high quality health and social care practices, the management should avail all the necessary resources needed for the organization’s operations to flow smoothly. 3.4 Effectiveness on the programmes of care In the programmes of care, the services that need to be rendered have to be of the highest quality for patients to be well looked after. All people who seek care programmes need to be treated differently depending on their needs (Boniface, 2009). For care workers in the United Kingdom for example to provide good services to their patients, all necessary resources need to be availed in the care institution. All the workers in the care institution need to work hand in hand in order to come up with ways to improve the care services that they offer. Team working within care institutions makes the programmes of care highly effective. By sharing information and ideas, the care workers learn new ways to improve their service delivery. It enables them to work together and assist each other in rendering outstanding services to their clients. Due to the team working practice experienced in care institutions, patients in need of such services are well looked for and empowered and this enables them to develop into important person within the society. The experience they gain from care workers motivates them to work with the care workers in order to improve the services rendered in care institutions further (Betty, 2010). Their contributions to the institution are of great importance in the overall success of the institution in its quest to realize its goals and objectives. 3.5 Effects of leadership styles on team working and multi-professional collaboration and relation to client care Democratic leadership style- This is a leadership style whereby a leader makes final team decisions but involves all the team members in the decision making process (Betty, 2009). The leader promotes creativity and innovation within his team by encouraging his team members to suggest ideas on how to achieve the team goals and objectives easily and in an outstanding manner. He uses strategies that motivate his team members to commit themselves fully to all the group’s activities. According to David (2009) the democratic leadership style promotes team working in health and social care institution. It gives the management and all organization members’ freedom to interact and in the process share information and ideas that are very vital in the achievement of the goals and objectives of the health and social care institution. The democratic leadership style also encourages exchange of ideas and information with various people from different information (Derrick, 2002). The information and ideas gained in this process may be used in one way or another to improve the quality of services offered in the institution. Due to the sharing of resources, information and ideas, new improved and effective ways of offering health and social care services are discovered. This enables users of health and social care services accessing the organization’s services enjoy outstanding services as all their needs are met satisfactorily. Autocratic leadership style – This leadership style is used by leaders who make decisions all by themselves and does not in any way consult their team members. This style of leadership demoralizes team members hence making them to be less committed to the activities of the team (Derrick, Ramsey and David, 2000). In the process, the style kills the spirit of the team and makes it difficult for the team to achieve its goals and objectives. Organizations with such leadership skills face difficulties in terms of team working within the organization since members’ morale is low and the separation of powers causes disrespect within the organization. Since team working is discouraged and innovation and creativity is discouraged within the organization, it becomes very difficult for high quality to be offered and therefore clients of the organization receive poor health and social care services. 3.6 Characteristics related to a team and team working Negotiation skills- The team leader plays an instrumental role in the success of the team in its quest to realize its goals and objectives. The leader is responsible for setting up strategies and plans to achieve goals and objectives of the team (Barkley, 2008). The leader needs to have outstanding negotiation skills so as to convince the majority of his team members if not all on the appropriate ways to follow in order to achieve all the team goals and objectives. The leaders should be able to explain and convince each member why he allocated him a certain task in order for team members to maximize their abilities in executing assigned tasks. Leadership skills- A team leader needs to have the traits needed for one to be a successful leader (Bernice, 2008). He needs to set team goals and objectives that are SMART and devise clear plans and strategies that will be used to achieve the set goals and objectives. He should also be an example to the team members by the ways he conducts the team’s affair. Commitment- The most vital factor for the success of each and every team is the commitment of the team members. A team member displays his commitment to the group by participating in almost all the events of the group and contributing significantly in all the team projects. Trust- A team cannot be successful if trust is lacking within the group. The members of the group should trust each other and show respect each and every time when in group meetings. They should trust abilities of fellow members for them to easily collaborate when performing team duties. Free information sharing- For team members to achieve the goals and objectives of the organization, they should be free to share information and ideas (Betty, 2010). This is due to the fact that these ideas and information may be instrumental in the achievement of organization’s goals and objectives. 3.7 Multi-professional collaboration Multi-professional collaboration is whereby various groups come together to improve the health and social care services offered to patients. Different professors from different health and social care organization come together and share information and ideas on how to improve the services offered in health and social care institutions and a good example is the NHS which aims to improve health and social care services in the UK. This collaboration enables each and every health and social care institution to have the required resources it needs in its day to day operations. It provides a good opportunity for doctors and nurses from different health and social care institutions to come together and share all the necessary information required to improve their service delivery in their respective institutions (Arthur, Ramsey and David, 2000). In such meetings, team working is highly promoted. For the meeting to be successful and outstanding results to be achieved, all participants should be committed to the task and freely share information and ideas relevant for improvement of services in health and social care institutions. In reference to the cardiac arrest case, multi-professional collaboration facilitates availability of the required facilities in health and social care institutions and this support doctors and nurses in their mission of saving the patient’s life. The information exchanged is instrumental in determining the various ways to attend to the patient. Doctors in the process of interacting share their experiences in cardiac arrest situations and from such information fellow doctors and nurses learn the appropriate ways to respond to cardiac arrest situations in their respective health and social care institutions. 3.8 Characteristics of Multidisciplinary collaboration Common goal- In multi-disciplinary collaboration, all participants have common goals that they are want to achieve (Abel, 2009). All the participant’s activities and efforts are directed towards the achievement of the set goals and objectives. In the health and social care sector, the common goal of all the participants in the multi-disciplinary collaboration is the improvement of health and social care services by all means available. Shared responsibility- In the multi-disciplinary collaboration, all participants share responsibilities. Joy riders are dismissed from the course in order to the goals and objectives to be easily achieved. Annah (2002) argues that sharing responsibilities promotes fairness and this motivates participants to produce outstanding outputs hence enhancing the chances of achieving set goals and objectives. 4.0 Lessons learnt from the episode of care From the episode of acre I learnt that team work is very crucial for the success of each and every organization in its quest of goal and objectives realization. The contribution made by all professionals in the attempt to help the patient who was in the cardiac arrest state made me realize the needs for others support in our day to day lives. The episode of care proved to me that indeed unity is strength and this has highly motivated me to work on my team work skills so that I could be of great help when working in teams. It made me understand that good decisions are made after consultation with all relevant people. This is due to the fact that before the lead doctor made any decisions concerning the patient, he had to consult all the people involved in the attempt to save the patient’s life. I know understand the reasons why team working is important in all aspects of the organization and I will always encourage fellow work mates to relate well with each so that it becomes easy to assist each other in offering high quality health and social care services. By doing so, clients of my organization will have an opportunity to be well attended to and their needs will be met in the required time. As a future nurse, I will give my all when performing assigned duties in order to help my organization meet its goals and objectives. I will ensure that my commitment to all organization’s operations is outstanding and that am able to freely share my knowledge and ideas with fellow nurses so as to offer outstanding services to our clients. 5.0 Conclusion Team working is very instrumental in the success of the organization in its realization of goals and objectives. The leaders of an organization need to possess leadership skills, management skills, team work skills, negotiation skills, and creativity and innovation skills among others for them to lead their organization in its strategic path. In health and social care institutions, team working is of great importance in the delivery of exceptional services to patients. Nurses and doctors should work together and share information and ideas vital in delivery of health and social care services freely for patients to be well attended to. In this way, patients’ health is easily improved and this enables the institution to establish a good reputation that enables it to be effectively recognized. 6.0 Recommendations In most organizations regardless of their nature and size, team working plays a big role in the realization of organization’s goals and objectives. I recommend that each health and social care institution should promote team working in its day to day operations. For team working to be effective in the organization, the management of the organization should ensure a good working environment exists in the organization and employee relate well with one another. The leaders in the organization should apply the democratic leadership style within the organization since it improves employees’ morale and commitment to all operations of the organization. The leadership style also promotes team working in the organization this speeds up service delivery in the organization hence meeting the needs of patients on time. This results to clients’ satisfaction which is one of the factors that facilitates creation of a good reputation by the organization. Doctors and nurses should be given opportunities to attend team work training programs and exchange programs for them to know how to work hand in hand and in the process improve service delivery in their respective organizations. References Abel. K., 2009. Effectiveness of leadership strategies, UK. Sage: London Annah. P., 2002. Team development: Developing a team strategy. The leadership Journal.75, pp. 117-135 Arthur. F., Ramsey. B. and David. S., 2000. Team building Strategies. 3rd edn. London: Longman. Barkley. E., 2008. Health and social care services. Sage: London Bernice. T., 2008. The handbook of team development. 2nd edition. Cullompton: Willan publishing Betty. T. 2009. Leadership-Key readings. Cullompton: Willan publishing Betty. R. O. 2010. leadership strategies: Revisiting the Agenda. Working Paper. Massey University. Boniface B. 2004. 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