What did mental health professionals say makes inpatient teamwork effective?

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Multidisciplinary teamwork in mental health care is diverse and complex, but effective teamwork remains a key means of achieving expected outcomes. Because teamwork involves face-to-face relationships, sharing meanings is important for effective care. The study aimed to explore how mental health professionals describe teamwork, the difficulties they face, and their proposed solutions from their professional standpoints.

This exploratory qualitative study took place in the psychiatry departments of three university hospitals. Researchers used the critical case technique as a purposive sampling method and conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 health professionals working in psychiatric inpatient units, including psychiatrists, nurses, social workers, and psychologists. They evaluated the data using thematic analysis.

The resulting themes fell under three headings: concepts, barriers, and suggestions. Sharing tasks and mutual acceptance of roles were most often stated as necessary for effective inpatient teamwork. Notable obstacles included avoidance of responsibility, strict hierarchy, underestimating other team members' roles, personalizing problems, inadequate staff numbers and qualifications, and rapid staff turnover. Participants emphasized a work environment focused on patients' needs and open communication.

The researchers sought to explain the subjective dimension of possible reasons for failures to achieve teamwork in mental health care. The findings suggest that professionals used similar concepts to explain teamwork but had different ideas about how to shape and conduct it.