It has long been thought that health care providers must work as part of a team to be effective in delivering care to patients. While considerable work on team building has been conducted in the hospital setting, less has been carried out in primary care settings. The work that has been done has tended to focus on physicians and nurse practitioners or physician assistants. This paper reports on work that takes the next step by including all members of the health care team, i.e., physician, nurse practitioner, registered nurse, medical assistant, and outreach worker, in an on-going team building process. Measures of effectiveness have been gauged over time through use of a tool known as the Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups (SYMLOG). This report includes documentation of the team building process and provides practical information about how such processes can be modified and introduced in other primary care settings, despite a health care environment that considers providers’ time too valuable to be spent in team development. Finally, this session will include a preliminary assessment of how such on-going team training and nurturing is affecting practice patterns.
Learning Objectives: To understand how one demonstration project implemented and assessed the effectiveness of a team training and building approach that is appropriate for all members of a primary care team that delivers care to low-income, vulnerable patients
Keywords: Primary Care, Collaboration
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Systematic Multiple Level Observation of Groups
O'Neill and Associates Training in Collaborative, Multidisciplinary Practice Teams
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.