Healthcare Teams and Collaboration It takes an entire hospital coming together to provide quality care to a patient and for the patient to be satisfied. It is rare for just a nurse to be involved in a patients care, there are usually multiple teams involved in taking care of the patient. Communication between teams is vital to provide successful care and to promote health and wellness. Whether it is intradisciplinary or interdisciplinary, the patient is at the center of focus. I plan to discuss the following issues in correlation to the care of the patient and where they fit amongst all teams involved. A patient who has only a nurse providing his or her care probably is not getting the best possible care they should receive but sometimes that is all they need. Intradisciplinary care usually just involves one team or involves just one scope of practice. Nurses are one team and sometimes a patient only claims the care of nursing. Some patients may only require the care of a speech pathologist to evaluate swallowing after a stroke or a dietician to have a better grasp on his or her diet. There are many different teams that may promote their care independently but most care inside of hospital is interdisciplinary. Interdisciplinary care involves the care of many different professions. It is common to be in the hospital and have the help of nurses, physical therapists, physicians and so on. “Effective interdisciplinary collaboration remains the cornerstone of efficient and successful functioning of health care teams, and contributes substantially to patient safety” (Fernandez, Tran, Johnson, & Jones, 2010, p.266). Patient safety and care is at its peak when other professionals are involved. When multiple teams are collaborating to promote quality care for a patient then communication must be accurate and helpful. When you are part of a team, you must all work together to help the patient achieve his or her goal. It is our duty to effectively communicate with members of our team so we are not stalling care but promoting it. The most important person to involve in this team is the patient. Every patient deserves respect and autonomy because it is their body and their life. It can be intimidating for a patient to speak up when so many professional are involved in his or her care but it is crucial that they do so we know we are helping them reach the goal they have in mind. If communication ever starts to breakdown between members then quality of care can come crashing down. This is why it is important to harness professional and consistent communication so breakdown never occurs. Every situation helps the team become more familiar with how to successfully communicate so being part of a team consistently helps you avoid those errors and improves your communication skills. Intradisciplinary care, stated above, involves just one team such as nursing. It is important to remain loyal to your fellow nurses and also to the patient. It is easier to speak up when you are communicating with someone of the same profession. Nurses possess the duty to manage the quality care that is being provided and it is easier to question physician when you are working alongside your team. Nurses need to feel empowered to make sure they are speaking up for his or her patient and to make sure they are getting the respect and autonomy they deserve. Interdisciplinary care can be the most intimidating out of the two, in my opinion. There are multiple teams involved with the care and it can be daunting for the patient to speak up and question what is going on with his or her care. Granted we may be working with multiple members of several different teams, we do not need to lose sight of the patient’s right to be involved. It is still our job to motivate the patient to ask questions whether it is towards the physician, dietician or radiologist, just to name a few. Between the two types of care, I feel