Preview Team Communication for Healthcare Professionals [PREVIEW] Team Communication for Healthcare Profes | Page 8

Chapter 1: Introduction
1.01 About this book and the Healthy Connections Model
I’ll start with the assumption that you are involved, directly or indirectly, in the provision of
healthcare. That could easily suggest the possibility of a broad and disparate audience
of readers. So, I will make a second assumption: that you and all other readers can unite
behind the desire to provide effective, efficient and compassionate patient care. The fact
that you have opened the book leads me to make a third assumption: that you recognise
you cannot achieve this in isolation. Let’s consider the people we must work with in four
broad overlapping categories:
• The people you work with – your team members
• The people you seek to lead – your followers
• The people who you should follow – your leaders
• Other groups of people we rely on or who rely on us – other teams
Our desire to provide effective, efficient and compassionate care can only be achieved
through excellent interaction between ourselves and each of these groups. This is the
basis of what I will call the Healthy Connections Model, which is illustrated below.
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