Teamwork and Collaborative Leadership Lesson

A key element in PCDM is to establish the decision makers and discuss their roles. In order to do this, you must include every member of the interprofessional collaborative team.

To contribute to PCDM and collaborative care, each team member needs to understand their own role and capabilities. At the onset of a shared care plan, it is important to clarify the organization’s ethics, values, and behaviors, and any potential impact on the role or philosophy of an individual team member. Since incongruence in values and beliefs is a key source of conflict for healthcare providers, a team must be able to identify shared values and behaviors to function well.

Clear expectations about performance help providers  identify, measure, and provide feedback about the team’s outcomes. A shared understanding of each other’s responsibilities and accountabilities leads to transparency and seamless collaboration. If you have dual or overlapping roles, determine who can most effectively and efficiently meet the overall objectives of the group while respecting the preferences of the patient. In healthcare, this is determined on a case-by-case basis. If one member of the team has particularly relevant expertise or background, the team may decide to allocate an aspect of care that is not commonly assigned to their professional role. Clearly and openly discussing and documenting roles and responsibilities on an ongoing basis allows teams to define and redefine how they work together in a complex and multi-professional setting.

When new members are introduced into the team, it is helpful to clarify each member’s typical role when collaborating. This should also be done when team members’ responsibilities change, and/or when the team’s overall responsibilities change. Examples of when to clarify roles in healthcare are: when the primary care provider changes; after shift change or during a break relief; when someone outside the team is consulted as part of decision making; or after an event when the team’s primary focus has changed (eg. ongoing care after the birth of a baby). Another time where role clarification should be done is when the environment itself has changed, and new policies or procedures are in place.