Building a Safer, Stronger Health Care System Through Teamwork, Communication & Human Factors in Health Care
Supporting clinical teams to enhance teamwork and communication and build a workplace culture that encourages respect, trust and collaborative leadership, creates the foundation for safe, high-quality care delivery.
Impact of Teamwork and Communication
Health care is a complex adaptive system that involves both technical and non-technical expertise that shape how care is delivered, received, and experienced.
When teams communicate effectively and work in a culture of collaboration and respect, health care improves at every level.
Non-technical skills can be defined as the skills necessary for safe and effective performance and include:
Flin, R., Mitchell, L. (2009). Safer Surgery: Analysing Behaviour in the Operating Theatre. CRC Press.
Supporting Teams to Strengthen Care
Safe, high-quality health care depends on teams that communicate effectively, collaborate seamlessly and understand the human factors that shape their work. At Health Quality BC, we provide the expertise, resources and support to help teams strengthen their skills and improve the way they work together.
We know that:
By supporting teams and organizations across BC, we’re helping to build a health care system where collaboration is second nature, communication is clear, and teams are equipped to deliver the best possible care.
Our Work in Teamwork, Communication and Human Factors
Through focused initiatives, Health Quality BC empowers health care teams to collaborate effectively, enhance communication skills and achieve improved outcomes for both patients and providers.
Teamwork & Communication Action Series
Elevate your team’s dynamics, cohesion and communication skills by developing essential non-technical skills through our interactive and expert-led action series. Interdisciplinary teams work together through modules designed to support teams to master the skills for effective teamwork and communication.
Seeing the Bigger Picture: Non-Technical skills Observation in Clinical Settings
Health care is a complex adaptive system that combines both technical and non-technical elements that influence how care is delivered, received and experienced. These are interconnected in shaping the quality and safety of health care services. While technical skills are essential, they are not solely sufficient to ensure patient safety. Non-technical skills are important because they make human work safer and more efficient, while complementing a clinical team’s technical ability. This interactive workshop highlights the essential skills necessary for teams to complete peer-based observations in clinical settings, and to learn more about the conditions of the system that people are working within.
Integrated Care Team Training
Discover how integrated team-based primary care can enhance provider satisfaction, reduce burnout, and improve patient-centered outcomes. This training equips health care teams with essential skills to build a successful collaborative care model. At the heart of SCF’s Nuka System of Care is the belief that the relationship between care team and patient is the most important tool for managing chronic disease, controlling health care costs, and improving the overall health and wellness of patients.
Team-Based Care
Team-based care is a model of health care delivery where multiple health professionals and patients work together to support a patient's needs. A key feature is having patients and their care providers be equal partners. Implementing this model is a priority in British Columbia and despite this priority, teams may be struggling with where to start. Visit our comprehensive library consisting of tools, templates and interactive applications and discover how you can begin your journey to enhancing team-based care in your own settings.
