Clinical teamwork, emotional exhaustion, and patient safety are three-dimensional concepts which are related and previous studies display that teamwork and the other two constructs associatetogether. The article attempts to showcase the relationship between the three constructs and explore the impacts of cognitive-behavioral and also interpersonal cooperation.The case study involved 2100 participants who were health practitioners’ employees of fifty-five intensive care units. The study population comprised of nurses and physicians who provided relevant information in the form of online questionnaires.  The content of the surveys required them to fill on aspects of cognitive, behavioral and interpersonal teamwork, patient safety and even emotional exhaustion. Data collection was done thrice within three months, and analysis employed the use of structural equation modeling. After data got analyzed the outcomes illustrated that emotional exhaustion impacted interpersonal teamwork.

Moreover, both cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal teamwork proved to be interdependent of each other, hence, mutual influence. Finally, patient safety gets predicted with cognitive-behavioral teamwork. Consequently, the interrelation between the three constructs unfolds in due time.Both cognitive-behavioral and interpersonal cooperation are also displayed to play particular roles concerning emotional exhaustion all the way to safe patient care. Health practitioners that are emotionally exhausted display negative interpersonal teamwork skills and provide poor patient safety thus form a vicious cycle. On the other hand, detrimental cognitive –behavioral teamwork affects patient safety. Therefore, according to the study, it is an essential prerequisite for medical facilities to manage teamwork and introduce patient health safety interventions to reduce emotional exhaustion.

However much the study aimed at determining the relationship between the three constructs several hiccups gave room for critique. For instance, data concerning emotional exhaustion got derived from Maslach Burnout Inventory since due to insufficient resources for the set sample size to condone to depersonalization and decreased personal accomplishments. The fact that data used in emotional exhaustion construct displays the use of different data to measure the construct. The large sample size brings in doubt mainly due to both economic reasons and availability of resources that need to ensure the accuracy and proficiency of the results. The lack of sufficient financial resources degrades the quality of results since some constructs got cut out to provide an assemblage of constructs produces results regardless of the inaccuracy of data used.

Although the three constructs are interrelated, it is not clear that if effective teamwork curbs emotional exhaustion among clinical personnel during practice. Also if few resources contribute to ineffective patient care and safety by health practitioners who are emotionally exhausted. Notably, few resources in clinical settings may prompt to lower the quality of patient care due to depleted resources, and unfortunately, the study does not examine the ability of lack of resources promoting emotional exhaustion. Another unclear aspect of these longitudinal constructs is if the different interpersonal and cognitive-behavioral attribute contribute to effective teamwork based on emotional exhaustion and the safety and care of patients (Welp et al., 2016). Healthcare organizations focus their primary goal to provide adequate patient safety and care in the midst of exhausted clinical teams due to workloads.

Conclusively, the relationship between the three constructs displays an assemblage of concepts that require research to establish their interdependence. Teamwork is a significant element in case delivering adequate health care is the primary goal. In clinical settings, teamwork employs not only collaborative efforts but also enhanced communication among the health practitioners promoting better health care services. Notably, teams function efficiently during teamwork procedures and even protocols. Therefore, due to the complex health services that require learning every time it brings strains on clinical personnel causing emotional exhaustion and reducing the effectiveness of delivering patient safety services.

Teamwork employs interpersonal, cognitive and behavioral processes. For example, interpersonal processes such as collaboration between the clinical personnel get viewed as a critical foundation for both cognitive and behavioral processes. Consequently, this links teamwork to the two constructs which are emotional exhaustion and patient’s safety. Notably, interpersonal protocols are deemed to improve the quality of patient’s care and safety. Cognitive-behavioral collaborative teamwork for instance whereby the clinical personnel shares and discuss excellent care activities for patients reduce the pressure of emotional exhaustion due to joined efforts. However, it is also evident that clinical personnel dissatisfied with the effectiveness and efficiency of their team during health practice tend to encounter more cases of emotional exhaustion(Welp et al., 2016). Notably, in acute patient safety and care, one-third of these clinical practitioners face emotional exhaustion.

Results showed that cognitive-behavioral practices contribute to effective teamwork compared to interpersonal cooperation. On the other hand, cognitive, behavioral and interpersonal collaboration did not affect emotional exhaustion. On the contrary, emotional exhaustion displayed an effect on the quality of interpersonal, collaborative teamwork (Welp et al., 2016).  Emotional exhaustion describes the core burnout characterized by fatigue, emotional drain, and absence of energy to practice health care related activities. In conclusion, it is evident that health practitioners who are emotionally exhausted are unable to contribute effectively during teamwork.

Reference

Welp, A., Meier, L., & Manser, T. (2016). The interplay between teamwork, clinicians’ emotional exhaustion, and clinician-rated patient safety: a longitudinal study. Critical Care, 20(1). doi: 10.1186/s13054-016-1282-9.