Mutual Trust Importance

In all aspects of healthcare settings, we demonstrate effectiveness or ineffectiveness as team members. We interact with patients, colleagues, and other professionals in ways that hopefully result in a smooth, well-functioning, patient-centered process. Conversely, we interact in ways that impede those processes. This identifies a team’s competence and ability to work together. The recent focus on teams in patient care within the public sector means an increasing awareness of our own roles in settings in which we have responsibilities that are mutual to or complementary with others (Baker D et al 2005). The author will address the question of why is trust important in team working.

In the minds of many healthcare professionals there are numerous

Fundamentally, mutual trust enables these by setting the foundation for good communication. Shared time and experience builds trust most effectively. Management have to accept that knowledge and resources will be wasted unless they support and accept offers to gather, share and transform knowledge. When organisations merge, transform or downsize, it has an effect on trust due to the belief that knowledge is lost as staff with experience and skills leave the role. Unless leaders recognise the improvisations and inventive ways people work both individually and as a team, tacit knowledge in particular will be lost (Smith E 2001).

Building trust takes time and is aided by building on relationships in a non threatening manner and use of calming events such as team away-days. It is the author’s opinion that by interacting with your team equally and fairly, as well as a zero tolerance approach to someone on the team complaining about another member’s actions, you can encourage trust within the team. A leader requires the team to resolve conflicts themselves first if not with the help of another to refrain from issues escalating and requiring larger