Healthcare is for the people and by the people. The doctor alone cannot treat and manage a patient. Even the simplest cure cannot be administered by a single healthcare provider alone. For instance, a prescription written by a doctor calls for a pharmacist to buy medicines from or a lab technician to conduct tests as also doctors to interpret those tests. Or a nurse to administer an injection. Thus, it becomes imperative for healthcare professionals of every specialty to work in harmony with one another, more so when treating a patient holistically.

Team dynamics play a very vital role in healthcare, especially for a team of doctors and nurses treating and managing a patient in an emergency scenario. A good team dynamic ensures that the patient receives the best possible care. A team that works well together reaches an accurate diagnosis sooner, in turn helping the patient to receive the right treatment and recover faster. In particular, Emergency is a specialty that relies heavily on the relationship between the members of the patient’s healthcare team. Good team dynamics offer the following advantages to the patient:

• The patient’s history is read by multiple healthcare providers such as doctors, nurses, medical interns, etc. This ensures that no important detail is omitted or ignored.
• The more the number of brains trying to fix the problem, the faster one reaches a diagnosis and, consequently, the solution.
• Nurses act as memory keepers, information highlighters, and keep the process of patient management organized. This ensures that all necessary information reaches the doctor(s) in charge. This also helps avoid any errors that could be made by a machine.
• A structured team approach guarantees that all the bases are covered in terms of immediate resuscitation, stabilisation and prioritisation of care.
• Effective teamwork generally results in positive patient outcomes, as compared to incomplete communication and poor team dynamics.
• A good team communicates with one another smoothly and effectively. This also means that they are capable of properly communicating with the patient and his/her family members about his/her health status and what can be done to improve it.

Healthcare professionals recognize the importance of a collaborative team and smooth coordination for better patient outcomes. Team dynamics can be improved via simulated training, as proven by various researches. Studies have indicated that team behaviors change considerably after undergoing interdisciplinary and interprofessional healthcare training in a simulated environment.