Teamwork and healthy workplaces: strengthening the links for deliberation and action through research and policy

The two lead articles for this issue by Shamian and El-Jardali and by Clements, Dault and Priest provide an opportunity to consider how two agendas - teamwork in healthcare and the healthy workplace - can be strengthened to gain mutual advancement. Both agendas are in the pan-Canadian Health Human Resource (HHR) strategic plan in Canada and were also identified within the Health Council of Canada's 2005 Annual Report. Strong links have yet to be made related to the teamwork in healthcare agenda and its relationship with the workplace environment. Significant research has been conducted, and advocates are pushing for policy change. It is recommended that those engaged in the research in these two domains dialogue with each other and collectively consider ways in which they could advance the policy directions required to enhance both patient and provider satisfaction in our healthcare system. The teamwork and healthy workplace agendas require thoughtful deliberation between researchers and policy-makers to inform action. This commentary provides an example of how the Ontario government has been able to engage within an evidence-informed process to develop inter-professional care that may ultimately positively impact the teamwork in healthcare agenda and the healthy workplace agenda in the future.