Continuing Education: The Interdisciplinary Healthcare Team—Facilitating Healthy Teams

Interdisciplinary healthcare teams, including palliative care teams, are high-functioning models of effective inter/intradisciplinary work. Our process of collaborative information sharing can contribute to effective and emotionally sustainable care for patients and families. Social workers, nurse practitioners, physicians, and other integral interdisciplinary team members are united in their common goal of quality patient care, but the lens through which we view medical complexities may be radically different.

While this difference and overlap contribute to the richness of interdisciplinary care and often results in better care for patients and families, we must also nurture ourselves and these relationships to prevent role fatigue, unintentional conflict, and burnout. Healthy teams must be created and maintained. With the difficult realities we face in everyday work, we must pay attention to the health of our colleagues, and ourselves, in order to best support team function.

While healthcare team members have many shared attributes and skillsets, social workers are trained specifically in nonverbal communication, the impact and use of language, relational dynamics, family system theory, and group therapy facilitation. These formational parts of our educational process uniquely position us to be team leaders in supporting healthy team function and identifying/navigating team distress.

Continuing Education Hours Offered: 3