Team Nursing - Channels of Communication in Team Nursing

Channels of Communication in Team Nursing

1. Reports
2. Work or assignment conference
3. Patient care conference
4. Written nursing care plan

The greatest single distinguishing feature of team nursing is the team conference. In general, there are three parts to the conference;

• Report by each team member on his or her patients.
• Planning for new patients and changing plans as needed for others.
• Planning the next day’s assessment.

It is essential that the conference be well planned, brief but comprehensive and interesting. The team leader is the chair person for the conference. They offer opportunity for all personnel to evaluate patient care and solve the problems through team discussion.

Advantages: (Marquis and Huston, 2003) 1. High quality comprehensive care can be provided despite a relatively high proportion of ancillary staff. 2. Each member of the team is able to participate in decision making and problem solving. 3. Each team member is able to contribute his or her own special expertise or skills in caring for the patient. 4. Improved patient satisfaction. 5. Organisational decision making occurring at the lower level. 6. Cost-effective system because it works with expected ratio of unlicensed to licensed personnel. 7. Team nursing is an effective method of patient care delivery and has been used in most inpatient and outpatient health care settings.

Other advantages: 1. Feeling of participation and belonging are facilitated with team members. 2. Work load can be balanced and shared. 3. Division of labour allows members the opportunity to develop leadership skills. 4. Every team member has the opportunity to learn from and teach colleagues 5. There is a variety in the daily assignment. 6. Interest in client’s wellbeing and care is shared by several people, reliability of decisions is increased. 7. Nursing care hours are usually cost effective. 8. The client is able to identify personnel who are responsible for his care. 9. Continuity of care is facilitated, especially if teams are constant. 10. Barriers between professional and non-professional workers can be minimised, the group efforts prevail. 11. Everyone has the opportunity to contribute to the care plan.

Disadvantages: 1. Establishing a team concept takes time, effort and constancy of personnel. Merely assigning people to a group does not make them a ‘group’ or ‘team’. 2. Unstable staffing pattern make team nursing difficult. 3. All personnel must be client centred. 4. There is less individual responsibility and independence regarding nursing functions. 5. Continuity of care may suffer if the daily team assignments vary and the patient is confronted with many different caregivers. 6. The team leader may not have the leadership skills required to effectively direct the team and create a “team spirit”. 7. Insufficient time for care planning and communication may lead to unclear goals. Therefore responsibilities and care may become fragmented.

Modifications: In an attempt to overcome some of its disadvantages, the team nursing design has been modified many times since its original inception, and variations of the model are evident in other methods of nursing care delivery such, as modular nursing.