Teamwork In Healthcare

Every member of the hospital team has to work together in order to ensure the best quality of care for the patient. This is no different for the radiographer as we work in teams together and with other members of the hospital community every day. First, however we must look at team work in general, its pros and cons, limits and boundaries. What is a team? McKinney defined a team as a group of people that combine their individual talents or skills in pursuit of a goal (McKinney. P, 2003). But what is ‘good teamwork?’ In my opinion, good teamwork may not come from a team where everyone is best friends, but more from a team that are able to override and solve problems professionally within the group while still completing the task to the best

The team members independently treat various issues a patient may have, focusing on the issues in which they specialise.” In short, various healthcare workers with different passions, skills and expertise in different fields of study come together to provide the highest level of care possible to the patient. Patients present themselves in a myriad of fashions, from outpatients to trauma patients to high dependency patients to those in need of palliative care. There is a multidisciplinary team formed for the benefit of each type of patient who will present at a hospital in order to ensure that the care they need is given to them to the highest possible degree. ‘Cancer Australia’ details some of the core team members responsible for treating patients with breast cancer. In a list on their website (http://canceraustralia.gov.au/) they mention surgery, medical oncology, radiation oncology, pathology, radiology, supportive care and general practice as core team members in such cases. Radiographers are among the members of multidisciplinary teams quite often, as their job is to provide an image that will help in the diagnosis of the patient, ultimately ensuring accuracy in diagnosis and appropriate treatment. The Society of Radiographers on their website, http://www.sor.org/, lists some of the many healthcare workers a radiographer might deal with as they strive to help care for a patient. Among those listed are clinical radiologists, consultant practitioners, vascular and nuclear medicine technologists, midwives and nurses. The benefits of a radiographer as part of a multidisciplinary team to the patient are immeasurable and undeniable. The patient can be