Communicating and collaborating with colleagues
Effective clinical communication, collaboration and teamwork are widely recognised as key factors in providing safe, coordinated and comprehensive care. They are essential to ensuring that a person receives continuous and coordinated care and enable groups to work together to navigate competing priorities, overcome issues that are associated with human factors and reduce the risk of error.
The Commission undertook a scoping study to improve understanding of how Australian health services support clinical communication, collaboration and teamwork. Findings suggest that for healthcare providers to acquire and develop communication, collaboration and teamwork skills, training and assessment should focus on the core competencies of teamwork and effective communication, relevant to the clinical setting that the healthcare provider is practicing within. The paper also identified a broad range of programs, training, tools and guidance on communication, collaboration and teamwork delivered in Australia.