Assignment: Multidisciplinary Teams

Along with one outside reference, identify at least three specific challenges to working in a multidisciplinary team. How might these problems get in the way of progress? How might you, as a health care leader, resolve potential issues in patient care? Write a one to two page paper addressing these challenges.

Providing healthcare is no longer a one man show, but is completed by multidisciplinary teams.  As the name implies, these are teams of people from different disciplines that come together for a common purpose. The multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach is used in a variety of different settings including: healthcare, education, mental health, and rehabilitation. The concept is that it is best to address an issue or problem from all angles.

The team approach promotes coordination and communication and can offer the patient a one-stop effort as opposed to many separate evaluations, interpretations, and plans. Any differences in opinion or approach can be discussed and resolved as a group, among the professionals, and with the patient. This avoids having the patient interpret and decide upon differing viewpoints.

The benefits of a multidisciplinary team for the patient are enormous. This approach assures the patient and family that the healthcare professionals are all talking to one another. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing. This method means that the ill patient is not required to be responsible for sharing information that he or she may not fully understand. It takes the burden off of the patient and places it on the healthcare professionals, who are better able to deal with it and use the information correctly. The MDT approach can be thought of as a circle, with the patient in the middle, and the professionals, both medical and non-medical, around him or her providing support and care. Ideally, the patient will also have family and social supports as part of the team.