Simen-Schreiber Leadership Model for Healthcare Teams

: The purpose of this paper is to provide a review of existing literature related to healthcare teams and describe an evolving deeper meaning of collaboration and interdisciplinary leadership for patient-centered care in today’s complex field of medicine. The methodology used in this study was narrative review of the literature. Data analysis was qualitative and enabled exploration of current theory. Operational descriptors were used to identify concepts of interest within each source. The primary outcome of this study is a new conceptual model for healthcare team leadership. This model is built upon four elements: (a) composition of the interdisciplinary healthcare team; (b) rotation of the leader role; (c) team member capability in areas of clinical expertise, managerial skill and emotional intelligence; and (d) the overriding processes of communication, interpersonal engagement, and decision-making. Conclusions suggest that healthcare teams function only as well as the leadership guiding them, and as no one individual possesses the necessary skills to address all demands of patient-centered care at all times, each team member must be available, and capable, to rotate into the leader role as needed. Final discussions present field-based scenarios for accomplishing this goal.