Table 7 Sample quotes on teamwork

Intra-professional teamwork within a unit.

[On this unit] as nurses, we work very well as a team because we understand that it needs to be done as a team because that is the best way that the patient gets taken care of and the best way they feel heard and feel at ease being here.

Inter-professional teamwork within a unit.

I do feel that sometimes there is a lack of …… communication from the physician team and that they don’t communicate what their plan of care is with the nursing staff ……. I find it really helpful when physician say, “ok we have this patient in here, they are this old, they have these comorbidities, I feel that this is a cardiac arrest and we are going to continue the resuscitation, we are going to get pulse check in 2 min”. When the physician speaks about what they are thinking, it just provides a whole lot of clarity for the team and we are not pulling in different directions. Often times the nurses, we are talking to each other, we are planning ahead which is good …… but I feel that the physicians need to take the lead.

Teamwork and tenure.

It is harder for newer staff members coming on to this unit, they don’t know people; they don’t know who they can talk to so, being here for [a few] years, I know who I can talk to and how to get things done that I need to get done and I know if I have concerns whom to talk to but a new staff member I think will probably have a hard time with that because they don’t know anybody so they don’t know who they can talk to which would then be a patient safety concern because they are trying to manage everything on their own and you cannot do that on the floor.

Teamwork and nurse-patient ratio / staffing level.

[Unit name] is where I worked for years previously before coming to this unit. Sometimes up on [my old] unit, where there is a higher ratio of patients and very minimal staff, it was hard to support one another. People got tired and it was just different; the physicality of the job was much heavier… Here [you have more staff]. …… you just have more people if you need to grab people, which is what it should be.

Inter-professional teamwork across unit boundaries.

You got staff downstairs who have no clue what we do up here ……... they don’t get it nor do they want to get it, [for them] everything revolves around [their unit]. You cannot assess somebody in a 20-min period and decide what you want to do with them, it takes some time. They are constantly pushing, pushing, pushing and then when you call them to try to get information, the left hand doesn’t know the right ……. they don’t know the mental health act, they don’t know anything about mental health.

Intra-professional teamwork across unit boundaries.

I was taking in an admission for a patient from [another] department ……. it was a …… nurse who had this patient and she gave me a report, it was pretty brief. She didn’t say very much, she told me that “he is calm and cooperative, nothing is wrong with him”.…… and after I hung up with her, I realized that I didn’t get a very good report so I tried to call back ……... for another report, nobody answered. So, I had to page my manager, she called …….. the [other department] to talk to their manager but in the process of this all happening, the patient arrived [up here] on the unit while I was waiting to get a better report.