Teamwork in Health Care

1. What are the differences between a team, a task force, and a committee?

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A task force is a unit that is created temporarily to deal with a certain specific task and when the task is completed, the task force is dissolved. A committee is made up of a group of people who address recurring or nonrecurring functions in an organization and it does not have to be necessarily dissolved after one task is completed. A team is a unit made of people with skills that complement each other in order to complete a task (OLeary et al, 2012).

2. What are some of the potential differences in dynamics between people in these different groups?

A team calls for full time commitment from all the members however in a taskforce and a committee members can function at times without the presence of all the members. This because, in a team members, have complementary skills that enable them to achieve various objectives.

3. What are some of the unique challenges associated with teamwork in health care?

One of the major challenges in healthcare team work is lack of commitment from the members of the team. For certain objectives to be met, each and every member of the team has to be committed to the functions of the team failure to which poses a challenge to the whole team. Moreover, there is so much pressure that arises when different individuals work as one.

4. Describe three benefits and three cost of teamwork in healthcare organizations

Teamwork enables for problems to be solved easily and fast because many people are working towards similar objectives. It also enables for exchange of ideas among people thus providing many ways in which problems can be solved. Team work in healthcare organizations also strengthens relationship among the workers which makes them to remain united (Serrano and Kirchhoff, 2000). On the other hand, team work requires a lot of time and effort to be sacrificed by individuals so that they can carry out certain tasks. Moreover, a lot of resources such as money have to be spent so that the group is maintained. Team work also requires a great team leader who has the skills of leading all the people towards achieving their objectives.

5. List and describe five potential strategies for conflict resolution in teams.

Discussion

The team can come together to discuss what the problem is and how they can solve it.

Mediation

A mediator can be used to resolve conflicts that exist between parties in the team. He or she should listen to the complaints of the parties and then come up with a solution (Jones, 2015).

Voting

If members are disagreeing on a certain issue, voting should be done and what many members agree should be the solution to the conflict.

Written communication

In a circumstance where members do not want to communicate to a person causing conflict in the group, they can write to him or her what they expect of him or her.

Compromise

The opinions of the conflicting people in the team should be heard and discussed. From the discussion one party could decide to compromise.

6. Which method is likely to be most successful if your manager likes to be involved in every decision?

The manager should assign some decision making tasks to his or her subordinates and also allow other people in the team to contribute to decision making processes. By doing so, he does not have to necessarily make all the decisions by himself. It will also enable for team members to feel that their contribution matters.

References

Jones, A. (2015). Conflict Resolution Strategies, Ethics, and Attachment: Connecting the Micro and Macro.

O'Leary, K. J., Sehgal, N. L., Terrell, G., & Williams, M. V. (2012). Interdisciplinary teamwork in hospitals: a review and practical recommendations for improvement. Journal of hospital medicine, 7(1), 48-54.

Serrano, J. A. V., & Kirchhoff, U. (2000). A novel methodology for world-best teamwork in hospitals. Standford-Smith, B. and Kidd, PT E-business, Key Issues, Applications and Technologies, IOS Press, The Netherlands, 859.