ABSTRACT
Medical teams typically are multidisciplinary, hierarchically structured, and have low temporal stability and familiarity, but often high spatial-temporal task-coordination requirements. We discuss three prototypical medical teams (ward teams, ad-hoc emergency teams, and surgical teams), guided by Hollenbeck et al.'s dimensions of skill differentiation, authority differentiation, and temporal stability, to which we add task requirements, including coordination requirements. Emphasizing communication processes, we discuss specific challenges for these teams, such as ensuring information transmission across shifts; establish roles in ad-hoc teams; communicating sufficiently clear, notably in unfamiliar teams; dealing with leadership roles; supporting shared mental models and shared situation awareness.
