The Secret to Better Healthcare Team Dynamics
In today's hospital environment, patients are seldom cared for by a single healthcare professional, making effective teamwork among nursing staff crucial for quality outcomes. However, with many hospitals relying on travel nurses to fill scheduling gaps, how can these organizations maintain stable, cohesive healthcare team dynamics? Keep reading to find out.
Multidisciplinary healthcare teams are at the core of problem-solving and decision-making. However, over 70% of medical errors are traced back to breakdowns in team dynamics.
5 Benefits of Nursing Staff Cohesion
Nursing staff cohesion is a critical component in developing strong healthcare team dynamics. Cohesion strengthens team communication, collaboration, and trust, improving hospital workforce stability and clinical outcomes.
1. Better Care Consistency
Nurses who work together consistently develop a strong understanding of each other’s strengths and weaknesses, enabling more effective collaboration and smoother care plan execution. This consistency benefits patients through seamless transitions and increased confidence in their care providers.
2. Fewer Medical Errors
Familiarity among nursing team members minimizes communication breakdowns and misunderstandings. This cohesion helps establish streamlined workflows, reducing the risk of medical errors, such as incorrect medication administration or improper procedural steps.
3. Improved Protocol Adherence
Stable teams create an environment where adherence to standardized care procedures becomes second nature. When team members work together consistently, they build a shared understanding of protocols and workflows, significantly reducing errors and the need for rework.
4. Accurate Information Transfer
Cohesive nursing teams develop reliable communication habits, ensuring they transfer critical information about patient conditions, treatments, or potential complications without distortion or omission.
5. Faster Decision Making
Familiarity allows team members to anticipate each other's actions, enabling faster and more confident decision-making, particularly in critical situations.
While nursing staff cohesion offers clear advantages, working with people from different backgrounds can be tricky. Challenges often stem from differences in training, professional values, problem-solving styles, and how team members view key issues. Add to that the mix of personalities, communication styles, and individual values, and it’s easy to see how healthcare team dynamics can get complicated.
Travel Shortcomings Revealed
Open communication, collaboration, and mutual respect are essential for building a positive nursing culture, especially within hospital settings where patient outcomes depend on seamless teamwork. However, when hospitals rely heavily on travel nurses to fill scheduling gaps it can be difficult for teams to work seamlessly toward shared goals.
For example, travel nurses often lack familiarity with facility protocols and the communities they serve, leading to mistakes, inefficiencies, and patient dissatisfaction. Furthermore, a revolving door of travel nurses places an extra burden on internal staff, who are often tasked with training and supporting new arrivals. This additional responsibility can lead to frustration, burnout, and reduced morale, particularly if it's a recurring cycle with no long-term solution.
In strong, well-functioning teams, everyone treats each other respectfully and recognizes and appreciates one another’s contributions. This creates a more positive environment where team members feel valued and satisfied with their work. They’re also more likely to stick around if they find their work fulfilling.
Local Secrets Uncovered
If your hospital depends on external clinical support to ensure continuous patient care, you can strengthen your healthcare team dynamics by reducing reliance on travel nurses. Instead, leverage local credentialed ShiftMed nurses who are available on demand.
These nurses are part of your community's local latent workforce—experienced professionals who aren't ready to retire but prefer fewer hours, nurses seeking work that fits their family schedules, and those who value flexibility without the commitment of traditional PRN roles.
By tapping into this local talent, you can foster greater nursing staff cohesion, with several key advantages over relying on travel nurses, including:
1. Faster Integration
Local on-demand nurses are more familiar with community-specific care needs and regional healthcare standards, enabling them to integrate seamlessly into your team with minimal onboarding time.
2. Shared Accountability
Unlike travel nurses, who may only be present for short-term assignments, local nurses are more likely to build rapport with internal staff. This fosters trust, collaboration, and a sense of shared accountability within the team.
3. Reduced Training
Local nurses often require less acclimation to cultural and patient population nuances, easing the training load on internal staff. This prevents burnout and ensures team members can focus on delivering quality care.
4. Improved Care
Familiarity with the local community allows these nurses to deliver more personalized, culturally competent care, boosting patient satisfaction and loyalty.
5. Cost Efficiency
Utilizing local on-demand nurses can reduce the higher costs associated with travel nurse contracts, reallocating resources to team-building efforts and other operational needs.
Proof of Concept
SSM Health faced significant financial strain at Saint Louis University Hospital's medical-surgical unit due to the high costs of inflexible travel nurse contracts, especially during periods of low patient census.
By partnering with ShiftMed, SSM Health gained a flexible, cost-efficient staffing solution. This partnership provides 24/7 access to local, credentialed nurses, allowing SSM Health to align staffing levels precisely with fluctuating patient volumes, reducing costs without compromising care.
"It's a mindset of expanding your staff with people in the community. ShiftMed nurses are not agency staff from different states, bouncing in and out of 13-week contracts. These on-demand employees have a lot of ownership—they work in the community at fellow hospitals and like the idea of coming to a different hospital to pick up a shift," said Jennifer Garnica, VP of Patient Care Services and CNO at SSM Health. "Most of the core on-demand staff that pick up four shifts a week for us work in the same areas and return to the same hospital. We reward and recognize them like our own staff."
Conclusion
Building a cohesive nursing team is essential for delivering high-quality patient care and achieving positive clinical outcomes. While travel nurses can provide temporary staffing solutions, the drawbacks—such as lack of familiarity with facility protocols, communication challenges, and the burden on internal staff—can undermine healthcare team dynamics. By leveraging local, on-demand nurses through ShiftMed, hospitals can tap into a community-driven workforce that fosters greater cohesion, reduces training burdens, and enhances care continuity.
Ready to boost your healthcare team dynamics? Schedule a free workforce consultation today!