Article

OBJECTIVE: To explore how multi-disciplinary team meetings operate in stroke
rehabilitation. DESIGN: Non-participant observation of multi-disciplinary team
meetings and semi-structured interviews with attending staff. SETTING AND PARTICIPANTS: Twelve meetings were observed (at least one at each site) and 18
staff (one psychologist, one social worker; four nurses; four physiotherapists
four occupational therapists, two speech and language therapists, one stroke
co-ordinator and one stroke ward manager) were interviewed in eight in-patient
stroke rehabilitation units. RESULTS: Multi-disciplinary team meetings in stroke
rehabilitation were complex, demanding and highly varied. A model emerged which
identified the main inputs to influence conduct of the meetings were personal
contributions of the members and structure and format of the meetings. These were
mediated by the team climate and leadership skills of the chair. The desired
outputs; clinical decisions and the attributes of apparently effective meetings
were identified by the staff. A notable difference between the meetings that
staff considered effective and those that were not, was their structure and
format. Successful meetings tended to feature a set agenda, structured
documentation; formal use of measurement tools; pre-meeting preparation and
skilled chairing. These features were often absent in meetings perceived to be
ineffective. CONCLUSIONS: The main features of operation of multi-disciplinary
team meetings have been identified which will enable assessment tools and
interventions to improve effectiveness to be developed.
CI - (c) The Author(s) 2014.

Langue : ANGLAIS