How Much Do You Know About Teamwork In Healthcare?

Why is teamwork important for Medicine?*
- It isn’t – Doctors work solo and are entirely responsible for all patient care
- It is nice to make other people feel like they are important too.
- Healthcare is multi-disciplinary and you will never be left solely responsible for the entirety of a patients care and wellbeing – you need to be able to work well in a team to be a good Doctor.

You’re in a group interview and someone hasn’t said a word since the start, what do you do?*
- Encourage them to contribute by asking them whether they think the group is on the right track or if they think there might be another way to approach the task or question.
- Do nothing, at least they won’t be taking your spot.
- Make a big thing out of the fact that they haven’t said anything yet, just in case the interviewer hadn’t noticed

Which of the following is not true about teamwork in Medicine?*
- Doctors specialise into specific areas, but patients often require care in more than one area.
- Patient’s trust Doctors with their lives and health, it is important to be responsible for every aspect of a patient’s care so can ensure that you are worthy of their trust
- Healthcare is made up of more than just Doctors. It is also Nurses, Healthcare Assistants, Porters, Anaesthetists, Radiologists, and many more Allied Health Professionals and staff members.

How might you demonstrate empathy and good teamwork if a member of your group is not contributing to the project?*
- Go to a member of staff and tell them that the person is not contributing to the project without attempting to discuss it with the team member first.
- Confront the person about their lack of contribution – this is Medical School, they shouldn’t be letting personal problems come before their studies.
- Approach the individual in a non-confrontational style as you do not know why they are not contributing. They may be struggling with personal issues, not understand their role, or they may be finding other group members’ enthusiasm intimidating, making them reluctant to speak when everyone is there.

Consider the following hypothetical scenario: You are on work experience and you notice that the consultant appears to give each member of the team on the ward round a long list of tasks to complete and often gives very short deadlines for their completion. He is also incredibly critical of everyone and often prevents the more junior members from contributing. How would you reflect on the actions of the consultant in terms of teamwork and leadership?*
- A leader should work to ensure that the team is cohesive and all members are able to contribute effectively. By handing out long lists of tasks without taking contributions from anyone else, the consultant is diminishing opportunities for anyone to take initiative. He might also miss out on something really important that a more junior member has noticed about a patient, which could put patient safety in danger.
- He is the consultant, so he must know best. You would make sure you know how you are going to become more like this consultant and have a plan ready to talk about in your interview.
- He is the consultant so he knows everything, he doesn’t need to ask for anyone else’s input because they will probably be wrong anyway.

Domain 3 of “Good Medical Practice” by the GMC is on Communication, Partnership, and Teamwork. Working collaboratively with colleagues is one important teamwork aspect mentioned, which of the following is another important example of teamwork in Medicine?*
- The Friday night hospital football team matches.
- Making all the decisions within a department without the consultation of others in the department.
- Working in partnership with patients to provide them with the best possible care.

Interviewers will sometimes provide hypothetical leadership situations in which a member of the team has done something that might affect the team – what would you not do?*
- You know which team member did it and you will accuse them in front of the group so that everyone knows you are in charge and won’t be taking nonsense
- Speak to the group as a whole and explain what has happened, say that if anyone knows anything they can come and talk to you in private.
- You think you know who it is, so you talk to them in a non-confrontational manner in private and ask them if there is something they would like to discuss with you. There might have been an accident that they were too embarrassed to tell you about without prompt.

How would you set up an answer to the question: “Give an example of a time you have worked in a successful team”?*
- Describe in detail the scene but skip over what you did or how you did it.
- Set the scene (what were you doing and what was the goal?), describe your role in the team (what did you do and how?), conclude with what you learnt about the qualities of a successful team.
- Talk about a time when you lead a group of people in the mountains, but you lost half of them and one of the group broke their leg so you left them behind on their own, taking the remainder of the group to find help but forgetting where you left the person who needed the help.

Quiz: How Much Do You Know About Teamwork In Healthcare?