The Mangle of Interprofessional Health Care Teams: A Performative Study Using Forum Theater.

Area of Science:

• Healthcare Management
• Organizational Psychology
• Sociology of Health

Background:

• Interprofessional health care teams are crucial for effective patient care.
• Understanding relational dynamics is key to optimizing teamwork.
• Existing research often overlooks the performative aspects of interprofessional collaboration.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore dimensions of relational work within interprofessional health care teams.
• To cocreate knowledge about interprofessionalism through collaborative methods.
• To analyze the factors influencing team performativity.

Main Methods:

• Qualitative study utilizing forum theater as a participatory method.
• Pre-workshop interviews to inform workshop structure.
• Analysis of workshop activities and participant enactments.
• Application of Pickering's theory for framework development.

Main Results:

• Identified three core strands of teamwork: organizational influences, task accomplishment, and orientation to care.
• Performativity significantly impacts team functioning and enactment of teamwork.
• Practice components are shaped by a complex interplay of human and nonhuman forces.

Conclusions:

• Relational work is a complex interplay of individual and systemic factors.
• Forum theater effectively facilitates exploration of team dynamics and professional identity.
• Team performativity is a critical, yet often implicit, dimension of interprofessional collaboration.