5 Ways to Promote Teamwork in Nursing at Your Facility

At your healthcare facility, patients’ lives are in the hands of the clinical team. A dedicated nursing staff keeps the wheels turning 24 hours a day, overseeing patient throughput and delivering high-quality care. At the center of an efficient healthcare operation is a foundation of teamwork in nursing fueled by a commitment to patient-centered care.

Why should administrators care about promoting teamwork within their clinical teams? In this article, we’ll explain the importance of teamwork in healthcare settings and provide tips for facility leaders looking to promote a cohesive environment where patient outcomes are the top priority.

What Is Teamwork in Nursing? Examples and Explanation

Nursing professionals are expected to work autonomously by applying their professional knowledge to guide decision-making in patient care. Although they have the education and training to make critical clinical decisions, it doesn’t mean nurses always function independently. In fact, it’s essential for nurses to work together within a team to accomplish goals for each patient. On a given shift, teamwork may look like many things, but here are some examples of teamwork in nursing:

• A CNA meets an RN in a patient room every 2 hours to assist with turns on a bedbound patient.
• An RN delegates a task to an LPN.
• A nurse answers the call bell and fulfills a request for another nurse’s patient.
• A charge nurse helps with an admission while the primary nurse gets the patient stabilized.

What’s the common thread for these examples of teamwork in healthcare? In instances like these, nursing professionals show that they’re able to prioritize the needs of their entire clinical unit, instead of just focusing on the tasks outlined on their own to-do list.

By addressing group shift goals in addition to their own individual responsibilities, these nurses are able to assist a greater number of patients and staff members than they would if they worked in their own “silo.” When every employee on a unit has a team-centered mentality, unit cohesion and efficiency are exponentially improved.

The Importance of Teamwork and Collaboration in Healthcare

Teamwork in nursing allows clinicians to share information and meet goals related to patient care. To work together effectively, team members must have clear lines of communication — otherwise, patient care can be compromised. A study by the Joint Commission found that 80% of serious medical errors resulted from breakdowns in teamwork in healthcare. Examples of these events include:

• Falls
• Medication errors
• Treatment delays
• Clinical deterioration and worsening patient status
• Wrong site, wrong procedure, and wrong-patient surgeries

Teamwork in Nursing: Essential Elements for Practice

There are many ways to promote teamwork in healthcare, including open communication, collaboration, and mutual respect. Below are five ways that healthcare leaders can promote teamwork in nursing and foster a collaborative environment that will ultimately lead to improved patient outcomes.

1. Create a Healthy Work Culture

An important way to promote teamwork in your facility is to create a company culture that allows nurses to work together and communicate effectively. This starts by building a strong leadership team that understands the challenges of everyday nursing.

Take a moment to reflect on the culture within your organization, specifically as it relates to teamwork. Is it frowned upon for nurses to respond to patient needs outside of their assignment? Consider how your organization can promote a just culture that makes nurses comfortable lending a hand without fear of repercussions.

Also, make sure your staff are comfortable asking for time off when they’re ill, need ADA-protected time off to care for a family member, or request leave for domestic violence or other serious personal matters. Aside from compliance with state and federal laws, showing true compassion for your nursing staff goes a long way toward cultivating positive teamwork.

Example: A nurse responds to a beeping IV pump in a patient’s room outside of their assignment and replaces fluids before they run out. The primary nurse expresses gratitude and helps another nurse in a similar way later that shift.

2. Establish Roles and Responsibilities

Many healthcare facilities utilize a team nursing model where nursing care is divided at a unit level. Typically, an RN oversees multiple patients, and care is delivered with the assistance of licensed practical nurses (LPNs) and unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs). This model is beneficial for facilities with shortages of RNs — but for it to work, everyone needs to be familiar with the duties and responsibilities of their unique role.

Whichever staffing model your facility uses, every clinician should have a clear understanding of each team member’s scope of practice. Healthcare leaders should educate staff about the expectations for each type of team member and review rules for delegation. Teamwork in nursing is effortless when there’s a culture of respect throughout an organization, from top leaders to direct care staff.

Example: A manager approaches an RN about staying late to chart after every shift. It’s identified that the nurse can be delegating tasks like medication administration to LPNs. After learning the tasks within the LPN’s scope, the RN has more time to complete charting while on shift and can now avoid staying late.

3. Update Communication Platforms

The technology within a healthcare organization can make a significant difference in communication among healthcare team members. Having updated technology that drives communication allows healthcare providers to reach one another and share important patient information, especially in an emergency. Relying on antiquated systems like faxing and paging can mean the difference in life or death.

Healthcare leaders should consider updating their facility’s systems to allow better communication between healthcare providers. For example, facilities can provide nurses with mobile phones that have integrated HIPAA-compliant text messaging platforms.

Example: A nurse dons an isolation gown and mask before entering a patient’s room, only to discover a dirty diaper that has leaked through the bedsheets. Rather than doffing PPE to go ask for help, the nurse sends out a group text to the unit staff and a few team members arrive.

4. Apply Shared Governance

Shared governance is a professional practice model that allows nurses to be involved in decision making that affects their nursing practice. Healthcare organizations that incorporate shared governance outperform other facilities in areas like:

• Nurse retention
• Job satisfaction
• Performance
• Clinical quality
• Profitability

Leaders can apply shared governance by creating practice councils where nurses can participate in decisions, such as policy creation driven by evidence-based research. Practice councils promote teamwork by allowing nurses to collaborate with healthcare leaders and their nurse colleagues. This helps nurses discover their coworkers’ strengths outside of the clinical setting.

Example: A practice council is formed to reduce unplanned extubations in the NICU. At a council meeting, a new graduate nurse presents a creative solution to a problem. Unit leaders recognize this and begin offering the nurse more professional growth opportunities like higher acuity patient assignments.

5. Identify Shared Experiences

Mutual respect among all members of the healthcare team is necessary for teamwork. By recognizing each other’s strengths and weaknesses, nursing professionals can work together for the common goal of providing best-practice care. Healthcare leaders can promote mutual respect by giving their nursing team time away from the bedside to attend educational classes or workshops that focus on team building and collaboration.

If your facility or healthcare organization sends out marketing newsletters, consider promoting wins and accomplishments that highlight your commitment to teamwork. These types of stories not only resonate with patients (and prospective patients), but also reinforce the bonds among your staff.

Nurse managers may also incorporate team-building exercises at staff meetings that allow nurses to identify commonalities with one another. By identifying shared experiences, nurses are able to understand one another on a more personal level and are more willing to have open communication at the bedside.

Example: At a staff meeting, nurses participate in an activity where they name an experience from a past job, and two nurses identify they served in the military. The shared experience deepens their mutual respect for one another at the bedside.

Recruit Nursing Professionals With the Skills for Success

Understanding the benefits of strong teamwork in nursing is the first step in delivering high-quality clinical care. Looking to recruit professionals who demonstrate these team-centered skills and behaviors? Posting your nursing job vacancies to our healthcare hiring board can help you quickly reach a range of candidates who demonstrate a passion for collaboration and comradery in the workplace.