A systematic review of team-building interventions in non-acute healthcare settings

A systematic review of team-building interventions in non-acute healthcare settings

Blog Article

Abstract Background Healthcare is increasingly delivered in a team-based format emphasizing interdisciplinary coordination.While recent reviews have investigated team-building interventions primarily in acute healthcare settings (e.g.emergency or surgery departments), we aimed to systematically review the evidence base for team-building interventions in non-acute settings (e.g.

primary care or rehabilitation clinics).Methods We conducted a systematic review in PubMed and Embase to identify team-building interventions, and conducted follow-up literature searches to identify articles describing empirical here studies of those interventions.This process identified 14 team-building interventions for non-acute healthcare settings, and 25 manuscripts describing empirical studies of these interventions.We evaluated outcomes in four domains: trainee evaluations, teamwork attitudes/knowledge, team functioning, and patient impact.Results Trainee evaluations for team-building interventions were generally positive, but only one study associated team-building with statistically significant improvement in teamwork attitudes/knowledge.

Similarly mixed results emerged for team functioning and patient impact.Conclusions The evidence base for healthcare team-building interventions in non-acute healthcare settings is much less developed than the parallel literature for short-term team function in acute care settings.Only one intervention we identified has been tested in multiple non-acute settings by distinct research teams.Positive findings regarding the utility of team-building interventions are tempered by a lack of control conditions, inconsistency in outcome measures, 3 piece horse wall art and high probability of bias.Considering these results alongside the well-recognized costs of poor healthcare teamwork suggests that additional research is sorely needed to develop the evidence base for team-building in non-acute settings.