Main description:

The provision of care within the context of the modern health service environment involves a wide range of professionals. The health care team might include general practitioners, nurses, midwives, hospital doctors, physiotherapists, other allied health professionals, as well as receptionists and practice managers. To optimise delivery of care at both individual and population levels, team members must work collaboratively with colleagues in their own profession and others. This book, in the Values-Based Medicine series, adds the dimension of values to the more usual discussions of teamwork, considering interactions between health care professionals and how these might be affected by differences in professional and personal values. Examples of scenarios based on real-life experience promote learning and reflection. Anybody working or training in health care and who aspires to collaborate successfully with their colleagues in other specialties will find this book extremely valuable, as will educators who facilitate learners in teamwork.

Contents:

Preface; Part I. Introduction and Theory: 1. Values-based practice in health care: setting the scene; 2. Teamwork and collaborative practice in modern health care; 3. Communication within teams and between professionals; Part II. Primary Care and the Primary Health Care Team: 4. A patient complaint: team meetings, policy and practice values - raising awareness in the team; 5. A well person health check, health promotion and disease prevention: different lifestyles, different values; 6. A patient with medically unexplained symptoms: applying evidence and values; 7. A request for strong analgesia: honesty and truth; 8. Asylum seekers and refugees: working across cultures; 9. A request for a home birth and other pregnancy related consultations; 10. Community-based care and the wider health care team Dawn Forman; 11. Ageing and end of life decisions; 12. Referrals and the interface between primary and secondary care: looking after 'our' patients; 13. Living with visible difference and valuing appearance; 14. Collaboration with other professionals: in and outside health care; 15. Learning in and about teams; Afterword; Index.