A Systematic Review of Qualitative Study in Multidisciplinary Teamwork in Healthcare
The world is getting old and Hong Kong is experiencing an ageing population. In Hong Kong, there are various types of multidisciplinary elderly healthcare teams working to meet needs of the elderly. Efficient teamwork is thought to produce high quality of care. However, the factors that influence teamwork efficiency are poorly understood. The aim of this study is to describe the factors that influence teamwork efficiency in multidisciplinary heath service teams.
METHODS:
Literature published in PubMed, ProQuest, ScienceDirect and CNKI from 2000 to 2013 were searched using “[patient care team (MeSH) OR multidisciplinary team (in title/abstract)] AND [cooperative behavior (Majr) OR inter-professional relations (Majr)]” as search terms. Selection criteria included full-text English or Chinese language qualitative study publications related to teamwork efficiency, involved at least two types of medical workers and elderly patients with chronic disease. Articles which were reviews, letters, comments, editorials, news, not related to teamwork efficiency or non-qualitative studies were excluded. Quality assessment of publications was carried out using framework from BSA Medical Sociology Group.
RESULTS:
Eight publications met the criteria. Four studies used semi-structured interviews, one used focus groups and three used observation. Three key themes related to team efficiency were identified: i) interdisciplinary communication. Team members experienced efficient teamwork when interdisciplinary communication happened frequently in their teams. ii) Role boundaries. Role boundaries were reported to be a reason of weak interdisciplinary cooperation between team members. iii) Information flow and interaction. Information flow and interactions often happened in multidisciplinary teamwork and team members felt that they needed more advice in dealing with information interactions.
CONCLUSIONS:
Some factors that influence teamwork efficiency have been indicated but the internal nature and process of healthcare teamwork needs more understanding and exploration.