Teams and Teamwork in a Virus Outbreak Using an Online Pedagogy
Background: Teamwork is critical for improved health outcomes during a crisis, like a virus outbreak. Individual team members need to be aware of their personal values and the guiding principles associated with high performance teamwork. The purpose of this activity was to introduce students to the value of teamwork in interprofessional collaborative care for improving health outcomes during a crisis like a virus outbreak and to assess attitudes towards teams and teamwork for an IPE event in a newly formed College of Health (CoH). Due to COVID-19, the event occurred online.
Methods: Sixty-five students from six departments/schools - nutrition and health science; social work; speech pathology and audiology; counseling psychology, social psychology and counseling; and kinesiology at a mid-western University participated in an online 2020 spring IPE event using the Zoom platform and breakout rooms. The focus was on identifying personal values associated with high performing teams and guiding principles for high performance teamwork. Pre-work for students included: the Four Habits of High Performance Teams and Teamwork from a Person-centered Perspective, the First Case of 2019 Novel Coronavirus in the U.S., and The Values of Team-Based Management in a Virus Outbreak. Students received an overview of high-performing teams then, led by four faculty facilitators discussed five personal values for individuals crucial to functioning within a team and four habits of high-performing teams in groups (n=4; 14-15 students per group). Upon completion of the Zoom breakout rooms, students shared and discussed their collective inferences. The Student’s Perception of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised (SPICE-R) assessed students’ attitudes toward teams, teamwork, and patient outcomes.
Results: Forty-nine of sixty-five students (75%) completed the post SPICE-R and reported favorable attitudes towards teams, teamwork and their value in improving patient outcomes from collaborative practice. Approximately 80% strongly agreed that factors associated with teamwork and team-based practice enhanced their education and training and 76% strongly agreed that patient outcomes improved because of collaborative practice.
Conclusions: Using the platform Zoom and breakout rooms to focus on teams and teamwork and a large group reflection and report was an effective learning pedagogy to introduce students to the value of teamwork in interprofessional collaborative care for improving health outcomes during a crisis like a virus outbreak.
Reflections/Lessons Learned/Implications: Using online learning to assess attitudes towards teams, teamwork and their impact on patient outcomes requires careful planning and implementation.
Funding source: None
