In contemporary nursing practice, interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams can improve the delivery of healthcare. The use of collaborative healthcare teams can be effective when team members understand their roles, responsibilities, competencies, and have respect for other healthcare members; allowing for an atmosphere that promotes assessing, planning, and providing optimal care. Healthcare teams, whether interdisciplinary or intradisciplinary need effective communication, coordination, and shared responsibility to be effective. Failure in these core principles could result in adverse patient outcomes, medical errors, and ineffective use of resources (Kuziemsky & Varpio, 2010). The team approach …show more content…
An intradisciplinary team of nurses can improve the quality of care and their performance because they share common ground. Intradisciplinary nursing teams can have goals to develop effective teamwork, improve nurse-patient outcomes, and address workload issues. The patient is the major focus of both interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams, both teams strive to improve patient outcomes. Intradisciplinary teams provide a link between healthcare workers in the same field of practice, while interdisciplinary teams provide a link between professionals in different fields. (Kuziemsky & Varpio, …show more content…
They emphasize the concept of shared governance. Shared governance enables nurses to have autonomy, and accountability in their practice. This empowers nurses to participate in decision-making process within an organization, especially decisions that affect nursing practice. Shared governance teams facilitate the professional development of nurses, allowing them to have a voice, and vested interest in their patients. Some examples of these teams include, fall prevention teams, patient satisfaction teams, and unit councils. The collaborative efforts of the team, results in decisions that improve nursing practice and patient care. Team members who actively participate, have a sense of ownership over their practice, and assume accountability for their actions. Teams enable nurses to know areas where they have knowledge deficiencies; encouraging them to strive to improve their knowledge through education or other means. In the same respect teams also enable nurses to know their strengths, so they may pursue professional development in areas that align with their strengths. In so doing, teams help nurses in professional development (Poulton & West, 1999).
In my nursing career I have been a member of both intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. Unit council has offered me the advantage of intradisciplinary team approach, the ability to work with my peers to advance nursing practice in the operating