The Teamwork Model: Proposing a Model for Studying Interprofessional Healthcare Teams

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. Patient safety is a preeminent healthcare concern in modern medicine. In the years since To Err is Human, researchers have found that the number of preventable deaths far exceeds 98,000; more accurately, 400,000 patients die each year from preventable healthcare errors. To combat the evolving patient safety crisis, a variety of organizations from Institute of Medicine to World Health Organization have called for the development of interprofessional healthcare teams. Interprofessional healthcare teams and teamwork have been a topic of discussion for over 40 years. And while some Interprofessional healthcare teams have been shown to be beneficial in some settings the success of these teams is not universal nor achieved in all healthcare settings. In short, research has found that interprofessional healthcare teams both improve and impede patient care. Building on this contradictions of interprofessional healthcare teams and teamwork, we present a model for the conceptualization of teamwork that could be readily applied to clinical experiences. This model is informed by the interprofessional healthcare team literature and relevant theories, and we believe will enable us to examine authentic interprofessional healthcare team interactions and identify moments when team interactions were breaking down, and reasons why those breakdowns were happening.