Case Study: Team and Team Processes

Case Study: Team and Team Processes

Sirmerl Young

MHA 601

Michelle Cranney, PhD

February 3, 2014

Case Study: Team and Team Processes

The case study involves two scenarios: Two surgical teams from two different hospitals that have similar composition nurses, perfusions, an anesthesiologist, and a surgeon, whom is the team leader (Johnson, 2009). The two nurses whom are members of different teams provided the following accounts of their team work (Johnson, 2009). The first nurse, Nurse A states that, “We all have to share the knowledge. For example, in the last case, we needed to reinsert a guidewire and I grabbed the wrong wire and did not recognize it at first and my circulating nurse said, Sue, you grabbed the wrong wire. This shows how much different roles don’t matter. We all have to know about everything. You have to work as a team (Johnson, 2009, p. 133)”.

The first intervention is the need to reinsert a guidewire, the second intervention is the circulating nurse noticing that the other nurse grabbed the wrong wire, and the third intervention is how everyone worked together as a team (Johnson, 2009). It is these behaviors, which includes the sharing and exchange of information, a willingness to review and back up other team members performance, deference to functional expertise irrespective of seniority, reluctance to simplify complex events towards the norm, and the implementation of self-corrective processes which include constructive feedback (Sutton, 2009).

The second scenario: The second nurse, Nurse B: “There is a painful process of finding out what didn’t work and saying, we won’t do that again. We are reactive. The nurses have to run for stuff unexpectedly. If you observe something that might be a problem you are obligated to speak up, but you choose your time. I will work around [the surgeon]. I will go to his PA [physician’s assistant] if there is a problem. If I see a [surgical] case on the list [for tomorrow] I think, ‘Oh! Do we...