The use of teamwork in nursing is important for providing quality,
efficient care to patients. Nursing has become so competitive that many have
forgotten what makes up a great functioning nursing unit. Too many nurses are
not helping each other out and leaving others behind to face patient care issues
alone. All patients should belong to all nurses and some nurses should not feel
as though problems aren’t theirs if it doesn’t involve their assigned patients.
Teamwork is essential to nursing and when one nurse on a nursing unit looks bad…all
nurses look bad through a patient’s eyes. Patients can also sense the lack of
teamwork on nursing units when one nurse is drowning, while the others sit at
the nursing station and chat about the latest hospital gossip. As nurses and
co-workers, we need to make sure that other nurses are caught up and don’t need
help. That being said doesn’t mean you should slack on your share of getting as
much work done as you can for the patient yourself. Teamwork is a type of
support that should keep nursing units functioning like a well-oiled machine.
Basically, everyone should understand that nursing is not about the competiveness
and who gets done first. It is about patients receiving the best of care from a
group of hard-working, team-oriented group of nurses.
Hi Veronica. This is very important material for new nurses to read. As graduates start in the hospital setting they are exposed to those who do not work well as a team. I know I had my share of these experiences. Your blog reminds us that our patients health and safety depend on us working together to get the job done Rhonda
ReplyDeleteVeronica,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to this but from a different perspective. Where I worked previously, we had amazing teamwork. Administration made so many changes that we never knew when someone was struggling because we were basically ALL struggling. That was 5 months ago- and I still keep in close contact with several staff, and rather than getting better it is getting worse. The other day a friend got a fresh surgical and an ER admit within 15 minutes of each other. Our PACU only keeps them 1 hour or less- regardless of how unstable they are (unless they are intubated- then they will keep them until the ICU nurse has the room set up- FRUSTRATING and dangerous). Anyway, no one helped her because no one knew she had gotten the two patients. When staff finally realized what had happened, they went to assist, but the stress was IMMENSE, AND she literally did not have time to FIND someone to tell them her plight....
Administration should be required to follow a RN at a minimum of once a month so they can see hoe effective (INEFFECTIVE) their decisions can be!