Groups and Teams in Health and Medicine

Given the prevalence of groups in health and medical settings, coupled with their importance in performing the work necessary for the successful delivery of patient care, healthcare providers must possess a firm understanding of collective assemblies of personnel. Group knowledge also serves as a foundation for bolstering one’s understanding of organizational behavior and management, as group intelligence is a building block of many of the discipline’s components. Indeed, one would be hard pressed to claim an understanding of healthcare establishments and their operation without possessing a profound knowledge of groups. In even the smallest health and medical organizations, healthcare managers are part of and interact with many different types of groups, with these being characterized by high diversity, necessitating an understanding of the group development process and qualities which yield high-performing groups. When this knowledge is put into practice in healthcare establishments and successful assimilation is achieved throughout given organizations, synergistic effects and impacts result, driving performance which benefits institutions, personnel, and patients. As such, healthcare providers must ensure that they hold associated prowess, permitting them to fully appreciate groups and realize the benefits afforded by their successful management. This chapter provides associated insights.