Are interprofessional healthcare teams meeting patient expectations? An exploration of the perceptions of patients and informal caregivers

Poor teamwork skills in healthcare have been found to be a contributing cause of negative incidents in patient care, whilst effective teamwork has been linked to more positive patient outcomes. The aim of this research is to explore views of patients and informal caregivers on the key characteristics of effective healthcare teams and their experiences of healthcare teams using a qualitative approach. A focus group schedule was developed from existing literature to explore this. Topics included the purpose and value of teams in patient care, key attributes and their impact on patient care. Patients and informal caregivers were recruited via convenience sampling. Three focus groups were conducted. Thematic analysis identified a number of themes associated with effective teams. These themes included the perceived purpose of teams, perceptions about the structure of a team, team-based communication, the role of patients, delivery of care. Research participants noted the importance of key characteristics in effective teams, but felt that these were not always consistently present. Communication was considered to be the most important attribute in team working and also appeared to be the area in which the patient experience can be significantly improved. It is clear from the findings of this research that further improvements in teamwork skills in healthcare are needed to achieve effective collaborative practice, sustainable service delivery models and optimal patient care.