Teams in Medicine

To effectively diagnose and treat patients, physicians must often cooperate, coordinate, and problem-solve with other healthcare workers. Successful teams in medicine define and work toward shared goals, employ the pertinent and appropriate qualifications of each member, and establish trust in other team members. Task-shifting passes certain roles onto other team members so that physicians can focus on their key areas of responsibility. A number of medical schools have adopted interprofessional education to train today’s physicians, but there are other strategies that are also being explored. Training modules such as Crew Resource Management and TeamSTEPPS^TM are being adapted to the needs of the healthcare field. High-fidelity patient simulations are being used to replicate common situations encountered by healthcare workers. Also, many medical schools are using problem-based or team-based learning practices through which students work with one another to tackle and reason through clinical scenarios.