Teamwork

929 Words2 Pages

Over time, the significance of teamwork has become well recognized by virtually every field of work. Today, this philosophy also applies to modern day healthcare and self-governed professions like nursing. In order for health care providers, like nurses, to deliver high quality and competent care, as well as be satisfied with their working environment, they must make a coordinated effort with other members of the healthcare team, clients, families, and communities. Due to this interdependence-rich nature of team functioning, a team can only successfully achieve a common goal when they follow many core requirements. By combining these concepts teamwork allows common people to come together to attain ground-breaking results. An example of a group concept that contributes to the synergistic nature of teamwork and team functioning is culture. Culture can be uniquely intertwined into our daily activities, work life, and communication style in countless number of ways. For this reason, in this paper cultural influence will be examined in the context of team members’ upbringings/societal/national culture and organizational culture. These aspects of culture can influence group process and team functioning in less formal settings like classrooms, as well as both facilitate and hinder healthy teamwork as a nurse. It also informs healthy inter-professional team functioning and interdisciplinary relationships with clients.
Exploration of Concept
Cultural diversity has a large influence in setting the stage for group process in newly formed groups. When these individuals come together, they each bring with them their unique experiences, knowledge, attitudes, and rules for acceptable behaviour. In other words, they each contribute their own ...

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...inions and challenge that of others no matter their status. Lastly, societies also differ based on if they value masculine or feminine values. In masculine societies, members favour masculine characteristics like being focused on personal achievement, and competition. Feminine value favouring societies are unselfish, modest, concerned with overall quality of life, and supporting. In terms of team functioning, members from this background do not have a concrete influence on the group since the masculine members are more assertive. Therefore, these upbringing factors and experiences combined cause each team member to come in with various expectations and assumptions about team functioning. This principle also applies to professions like nursing where values and beliefs can influence decisions about patient care and inter-professional or interdisciplinary interaction.

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