Building Multi-disciplinary Health Care Teams

From Northwest Dentistry

by Gary Goldetsky, Psy.D., and Tony Rinkenberger, M.H.A.

Every culture teaches its new members basic assumptions about reality in order to help organize thinking, perception, emotion, and behavior. A culture is revealed tharough its

mental and communication paradigms, behaviors, storytelling that celebrates success, leadership integrity, and “rules of the game”.  For a health care culture, how multi-disciplinary teams are developed (or not developed) reflects that culture in general and, for the purposes of this article, the dental practice in particular, especially when it comes to the differences between espoused values and behavioral reality. Although it is often discussed in economic terms, even the current “health care crisis” may be interpreted in terms of team development and team functioning issues.  Read more…