Benefits and losses: a qualitative study exploring healthcare staff perceptions of teamworking

Objectives: To examine staff perceptions of teamworking practice in the field of stroke care. Design: Qualitative interview study. Setting: Three teams providing care to patients with stroke across a typical care pathway of acute hospital ward, specialist stroke unit, and community rehabilitation. Participants: 37 staff members from a range of professions. Main outcome measures: Healthcare staff perceptions of teamworking. Results: Through detailed coding and analysis of the transcripts, five perceptions regarding the impact of teamworking on staff and patients were identified. These were: (1) mutual staff support, (2) knowledge and skills sharing, (3) timely intervention/discharge, (4) reduced individual decision-making and responsibility and (5) impact on patient contact time. C onclusions: Teamworking practice may be associated with a number of perceived benefits for staff and patient care; however, the potential for losses resulting from reduced patient contact time and ill-defined responsibility needs further investigation.