Why are teamwork and collaboration in nursing essential? Teamwork among nurses and other health care providers is crucial for promoting better patient outcomes, enhancing patient safety, and creating a positive work culture. Collaboration in nursing can be seen in many situations, including patient handoffs and complex care coordination.
Nursing can be a meaningful line of work ideal for individuals who aren’t afraid to take on significant responsibilities, like upholding high patient care and safety standards. As nurses are responsible for their patients and must be able to handle any problems, they must draw upon diverse hard and soft skills, including teamwork and collaboration.
Why are teamwork and collaboration in nursing important, and how can you support a collaborative culture in the workplace? Find your answer at Notre Dame of Maryland University. Our Accelerated 2nd Degree BSN (Bachelor of Science in Nursing) program offers a rigorous curriculum to prepare students to become competent, practice-ready nurses. As you work through our ABSN program, you’ll get a first-hand look at why teamwork in nursing is so critical.
The Importance of Collaboration in Nursing
Teamwork within nursing can take many forms. It encompasses interprofessional collaboration and communication among nurses. Interprofessional collaboration refers to various professionals working together, such as nurses, physical therapists, doctors and even social workers. No matter which form collaboration takes in a health care setting, it offers clear benefits to all.
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Improving Patient Outcomes With Collaborative Care
While nurses generally focus on the health of the whole patient, the same can’t be said of every health care provider. Interprofessional collaboration is important for addressing the patient’s every need. In addition, collaboration among a nursing team can help ensure the patient’s care plan is thorough and personalized, leading to better patient outcomes.
Enhancing Patient Safety Through Teamwork
Patient safety is a top concern, yet specific issues may arise when patients receive care from multiple providers (e.g., medications that interact negatively with each other). Teamwork and collaboration in nursing and with other health care providers are essential for ensuring patient safety and mitigating potential conflicts.
Facilitating a Positive Workplace Culture
Teamwork benefits the patient, all health care providers and the entire organization. Better collaboration leads to a more positive, supportive and focused workplace and safety-minded work culture.
Examples of Teamwork Within Nursing
Now that you understand the necessity of working well with your fellow nurses and other providers, you may be curious about what this collaboration might look like practically. There is no limit to what forms collaboration might take, but some everyday situations may include:
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Care Coordination for Chronic Conditions
Not every patient has a cut-and-dry health issue; some have highly complex clinical needs. For instance, a patient who survived cardiac arrest might also have severe lung disease. A patient who survived a car accident might be suffering from multiple severe traumatic injuries impacting various parts of the body. With teamwork and collaboration, the patient can receive holistic care that addresses each issue and promotes long-term recovery.
Streamlining Complex Drug Treatment Plans
Figuring out a patient’s medications isn’t always straightforward. Just like complex trauma patients, some patients need complex drug treatment plans that take into account current medications and co-morbidities. Nurses may need to collaborate with physicians and pharmacists for proper medication management.
Handling Emergency Situations
In an emergency, patients need to get stabilized quickly. Collaboration and teamwork allow nurses, EMS teams and other emergency health care providers to immediately identify and address the most urgent needs.
Facilitating Patient Handoffs
At the start of each nursing shift, the incoming nurse receives a briefing from the outgoing nurse. Strong collaboration skills ensure that the patient handoff goes well and that no detail is overlooked.
Best Practices for Fostering Collaboration in Nursing
Teamwork in nursing is critical and takes many forms. As a nurse, there are several steps you can take to support collaboration, including the following:
Encouraging Open Communication and Feedback
Teamwork within nursing isn’t possible without open communication. As a nurse, it’s essential to let your voice be heard. You serve as an advocate for your patients. You’ll need to speak up if something doesn’t seem right, but don’t forget to be receptive to the feedback of others.
Providing Teamwork and Collaboration Training
Hospitals and other health care organizations can promote collaboration in nursing by providing professional development opportunities, such as teamwork and collaboration training seminars and workshops.
Support Constructive Conflict Resolution
Disagreements are inevitable in every field, including nursing. It’s important to use constructive conflict resolution skills to ensure everyone’s voice is heard and that the solution reached benefits everyone.
The Future of Teamwork in Nursing
The nursing field is dynamic; it continually evolves as new nursing research emerges and new patient care technologies become available. What won’t change is that teamwork will always be necessary for upholding high patient care and safety standards. In some cases, however, what teamwork looks like may change. For example, technology has the potential to facilitate and improve the ability of nurses and other health care providers to collaborate.
How Telehealth Is Changing Care
One example of how technology may facilitate teamwork and collaboration in nursing is telehealth technology. You likely already know that telemedicine allows patients to connect with health care providers from anywhere via the internet or phone; however, the uses of telehealth technology aren’t limited to patient-provider interactions alone.
Nurses can also use telehealth tech to connect to other care teams worldwide to coordinate patient care, share research and evaluation methods, and provide monitoring and interprofessional consultations. This can be particularly useful when nurses are treating out-of-town patients. If a tourist becomes hospitalized far away from their health system, virtual collaboration can allow nurses to connect with the patient’s care providers.
Preparing the Next Generation of Nurses
When choosing applicants to admit, nursing schools often look for a blend of qualities and characteristics that can form the foundation of professional nursing practice. These include compassion, empathy and other emotional intelligence skills. Nursing students must also nurture a collaborative mindset, as teamwork will always be crucial for favorable patient outcomes.
Of course, nursing school applicants aren’t expected to have practice-ready soft skills at the start of their education. The nursing school curriculum needs to be designed to foster teamwork skills and collaboration. At Notre Dame, these skills are emphasized within our curriculum and by our dedicated nursing instructors. It’s just one more way that we’re working to prepare the next generation of nurses to tackle modern challenges in the field.
Get Ready for a Collaborative Career at Notre Dame
At Notre Dame of Maryland University, our hands-on curriculum and group learning experiences encourage students to develop strong teamwork skills and a collaborative mindset, which serve them well in their future careers in nursing. Here, you can earn your nursing degree in as few as 15 months if you have completed a non-nursing bachelor’s degree. Plus, unlike many ABSN programs, you can choose between online or onsite coursework.
Ready to get started working toward a meaningful career in nursing? Contact our admissions team today to learn about the next steps in the application process.