Team Feedback Tool
Healthcare delivery is evolving from individual, autonomous practice to collaborative team practice. However, barriers such as professional autonomy, time constraints and the perception of error as failure preclude learning behaviours that can facilitate organizational learning and improvement. Although experimentation, engaging in questions and feedback, discussing errors and reflecting on results can facilitate learning and promote effective performance, the cultural barriers within healthcare can prevent or inhibit this type of behaviour among teams.
On-going interdisciplinary team improvement can be significant for enhancing performance, processes and more importantly, patient care. However, the necessary tools need to be developed to encourage learning behaviour and to address the barriers which exist in the healthcare environment that prevent team development.
At the Centre for Innovation in Complex Care, we recognize the need for a tool that elicits feedback, facilitates discourse and promotes learning behaviour among health team members. It is also crucial that this tool be sensitive to the unique barriers and risk-averse nature of the clinical environment. The CICC spearheaded the development of the Team Feedback Tool with the goal of addressing the issues of teamwork and feedback in the clinical environment.
The vehicle for the Team Feedback tool is a web-based application called Rypple which allows team members to provide anonymous, rapid-fire feedback on team processes and performance. Rypple facilitates communication, elicits feedback and provokes discussion. The process enables follow-up face-to-face team discussions and encourages teams to create actionable solutions for incremental changes to enhance team health and performance.
The Team Feedback Tool was implemented and piloted in General Internal Medicine at the University Health Network’s Toronto General Hospital from early May 2009 to July 2009.
The Team Feedback Tool was recently presented at the 2010 Interprofessional Health Collaborative.
For more information about the Team Feedback Tool, please contact Christine Plaza, Designer & Project Manager, CICC (christine.plaza@uhn.on.ca).