Military medicine
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Multiple aspects of interpersonal dynamics can help or hinder the success of teams, particularly those in a Military Interprofessional Healthcare Team (MIHT). One specific mechanism for MIHTs' success is camaraderie and how these military teams are able to achieve, maintain, and enable the development of this important characteristic. Despite our understanding of military service members as being bonded like a family, we have a limited understanding of how this bond is translated into their MIHT experiences. ⋯ Through the identification and exploration of these aspects of camaraderie, we are able to better understand how MIHTs are able to be successful. MIHTs that demonstrated confidence in their brother/sister in arms possessed shared goals and missions, while maintaining mutual respect, a desire to help one another do better, and creating a personal and professional overlap tended to form stronger bonds of military service. Critically, these six aspects support a more nuanced understanding of the spirit of camaraderie and how it underpins MIHT success.
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In order to best optimize health care, we need the right combination of individuals working on interprofessional health care teams, each joining with the right mindset, in the right places, and at the right times. In this special issue of Military Medicine, Dr. ⋯ Such research is fundamental to advance excellence of military health care by finding, exploring, and addressing existing gaps in what we currently employ and capitalizing on what we know works well. In doing so, we can improve the effectiveness of our care teams and, as a result, optimize care of our wounded on the battlefield.
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The U.S. Military has long been aware of the vital role effective leaders play in high-functioning teams. Recently, attention has also been paid to the role of followers in team success. However, despite these investigations, the leader-follower dynamic in military interprofessional health care teams (MIHTs) has yet to be studied. Although interprofessional health care teams have become a topic of increasing importance in the civilian literature, investigations of MIHTs have yet to inform that body of work. To address this gap, our research team set out to study MIHTs, specifically focusing on the ways in which team leaders and followers collaborate in MIHTs. We asked what qualities of leadership and followership support MIHT collaboration? ⋯ This study focused on ways in which team leaders and followers on MIHTs collaborate. Findings focused on qualities of leadership and followership that support MIHT's collaboration and found that MIHTs have a commitment to a shared mission and a shared sense of responsibility to achieve that mission. From this foundational position of collective responsibility to achieve a common goal, MIHTs develop ways of collaborating that enable leaders and followers to excel to include (1) understanding your role and the roles of others; (2) mutual respect; (3) flexibility; and (4) emotional safety. The study data suggest that MIHT members work along a continuum of leadership and followership, which may shift at any moment. Military interprofessional health care teams members are advised to be adaptive to these shared roles and contextual changes. We recommend that all members of MIHTs acquire leadership and followership training to enhance team performance.
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The success of the military is significantly supported by highly effective collaborative teams. While much is known about successful military teams outside the context of healthcare delivery, considerably less attention has been paid to teams working in patient care. Thus, this supplement has explored the features of successful military interprofessional healthcare teams (MIHTs). In this summary paper, the authors discuss what this supplement's investigations have taught us about MIHTs and offer a series of proposed future investigations of MIHTs and their role in military healthcare.
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Military healthcare providers working in military interprofessional healthcare teams (MIHTs) require situational awareness (SA) to ensure safe and efficacious patient care. This study aimed to explore SA in MIHTs to understand how SA can be reinforced and maintained in MIHTs. The research team set out to answer two questions: "What aspects of individual and team SA are particularly important for MIHTs?" and "How can we enable military healthcare providers to be effective MIHTs members with robust SA?". ⋯ The urgency often faced by MIHTs brings SA and the principles that underpin SA into sharper focus. The SA themes identified in this research may provide insight into training effectiveness, team strengths and weaknesses, and team performance.