Creating a culture of respect and interprofessional teamwork on a labor and birth unit: a multifaceted quality improvement project.

Abstract

Interprofessional teamwork is essential to high-quality healthcare, however disrespect and incivility amongst team members is a challenge to creating and sustaining effective teams. We describe and assess the impact of a multifaceted improvement project with the primary intervention being a Compassionate Communication (CC) training on a Labor and Birth unit. Our hypothesis was this improvement project would increase staff members' capacity for perspective-taking and self-reflection, which would in turn correlate with positive interpersonal interactions, respect and teamwork. Secondly, we hypothesized that enhanced respect and teamwork would correlate with enhanced affective commitment to the organization. Staff was surveyed midway through the project and 6 months after the CC training. A total of 74 (57%) staff completed the initial pre-training surveys and 50 (38%) staff completed post-training surveys. At 6 months post-CC training we saw changes in self-reflection and an awakening of self-awareness. There were no significant changes in perspective-taking. However, we did see changes in staffs' perceptions of respect and teamwork. Team members' affective commitment to the organization increased. In this Labor and Birth setting, a multifaceted improvement project with the primary intervention being CC training was beneficial in improving a culture of respect and interprofessional teamwork.