Healthcare is a lot like football. There’s a lot at stake, every goal is important, often there’s extra time or an own goal and late kick-offs are common.
There are no magic sponges but there is definitely teamwork.
Doctors, nurses and healthcare providers work closely together to get the best results.
This means, whether you specialise as a physiotherapist or in peadiatrics, you will always be working with a wide and varied range of professionals.
Show all Medical, Dental & Healthcare vacancies across Scotland
Here’s how to make your team winners.
Connect Quickly
No football squad would expect a new player to walk out on to the pitch without first being introduced. The same goes in healthcare.
If you’re a newcomer to a GP surgery, hospital ward or community care organisation, it’s important to get to know everyone as quickly as possible.
This is more difficult in ward nursing, where working shifts creates more of a wrestling tag-team.
But even here getting to know everyone – from colleagues to consultants – is vital. Connect with your team members fast.
Work and Play
Healthcare at any level can be challenging and this means to get the best results the team needs to have sufficient time together off the pitch to unwind.
Whether it’s ten minutes and a coffee in the canteen or drinks after work, socialising with the rest of the team builds better bonds between members.
This sense of camaraderie will also bring results – and greater job satisfaction – in the workplace.
Take One for the Team
If there’s any job sectors prone to rapidly changing timetables, last-minute changes in rotas and sudden and unexpected crises, it’s healthcare.
Life as a nurse, in particular, is as unpredictable as a Strictly dance-off.
What holds the entire team together and keeps everyone on mission is the individual members’ ability to be flexible without complaining.
Stepping in to assist, even though you may already have fulfilled your duties, makes you and your team winners.
Open All Channels
Strengthening teamwork maximises the quality of care for patients and a vital part of this process is communication.
Information between nurses and with doctors must be shared accurately and regularly – so handwritten notes should always be legible and assessment charts clear and logical.
If you’re ever in any doubt about what’s been said or written, always double check the data before acting.
Want to be part of a top team? For all the latest Medical, Dental & Healthcare vacancies visit s1jobs