Learning from the multidisciplinary team: advancing patient care through collaboration

Training for doctors, and other healthcare workers, has traditionally focussed on developing the knowledge and technical skills relevant to individual specialties. There has been an assumption that once trained in this way, we will be able to work easily and effectively in teams with other professionals. Multidisciplinary working is now a normal pattern of healthcare delivery and teamwork is taught as part of current curricula. Interdisciplinary learning is becoming more common, with medical students, nursing students and other professions allied to medicine learning together during their training. Healthcare staff who are already qualified have not had the benefit of being taught the particular skills needed to work well as part of diverse teams, nor given the skills to identify and overcome barriers to effective teamwork. We all need to develop these skills to help our patients get the best care from the teams looking after them.