Event Title

Representing Complexity Well: A Story about Teamwork, with Implications for How We Teach Collaboration

Start Date

5-10-2011 10:45 AM

End Date

5-10-2011 11:45 AM

Abstract

The problem

Clinicians face the daily challenge of providing good care in a system that grows increasingly complex. However, research into how healthcare teams work ‐‐ and how trainees acquire the competence of collaboration – has struggled to represent such complexity well. Researchers need to find new ways of doing justice to this complexity, because our conceptions of teamwork have a powerful influence on what we think is possible, and where we put our attention as clinicians and educators.

The study

This presentation draws on an ethnographic study which used 162 hours of observation and 47 (field and formal) interviews to explore the collaborative activities of 39 members of a transplantation team. Data were analyzed both inductively for emergent themes and chronologically by patient case. Coding was verified through interviews with key informant/collaborators and three return‐of‐findings discussions.

The story

To represent the complexity in our data, we eschew the traditional genre of reporting qualitative results – the description of themes ‐‐ for the rich and situated detail of story. A story’s power resides not in its generalizability, but in its resonance, its ability to transport readers to their own teamwork moments and to produce a sense of déjà vu that signals shared social experience and prompts deep reflection. We present the story of Mr. Hearn, during whose care the transplant team must negotiate an array of collaborative challenges across multiple hospital services. From the story, we query and complicate some of the assumptions underpinning current approaches to teaching – and doing ‐‐ collaboration.

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COinS
 
Oct 5th, 10:45 AM Oct 5th, 11:45 AM

Representing Complexity Well: A Story about Teamwork, with Implications for How We Teach Collaboration

The problem

Clinicians face the daily challenge of providing good care in a system that grows increasingly complex. However, research into how healthcare teams work ‐‐ and how trainees acquire the competence of collaboration – has struggled to represent such complexity well. Researchers need to find new ways of doing justice to this complexity, because our conceptions of teamwork have a powerful influence on what we think is possible, and where we put our attention as clinicians and educators.

The study

This presentation draws on an ethnographic study which used 162 hours of observation and 47 (field and formal) interviews to explore the collaborative activities of 39 members of a transplantation team. Data were analyzed both inductively for emergent themes and chronologically by patient case. Coding was verified through interviews with key informant/collaborators and three return‐of‐findings discussions.

The story

To represent the complexity in our data, we eschew the traditional genre of reporting qualitative results – the description of themes ‐‐ for the rich and situated detail of story. A story’s power resides not in its generalizability, but in its resonance, its ability to transport readers to their own teamwork moments and to produce a sense of déjà vu that signals shared social experience and prompts deep reflection. We present the story of Mr. Hearn, during whose care the transplant team must negotiate an array of collaborative challenges across multiple hospital services. From the story, we query and complicate some of the assumptions underpinning current approaches to teaching – and doing ‐‐ collaboration.