This post was authored by the ACC Cardiovascular Team Council*.

A team is often defined as a group of individuals with a full set of complementary skills working together to complete a task, a project, or to achieve a goal. In cardiology the focus is on the patient and to deliver exceptional patient care, we must rely on teamwork. In cardiology, a cardiovascular team is comprised of a skilled, diverse group of professionals including physicians, nurses, nurse practitioners, clinical nurse specialists, physician assistants and pharmacists.

As transformational leaders, members of the ACC Cardiovascular Team Council and Section are spearheading the charge to redefine and improve health care delivery in America to a team-based care approach. While teams across the nation will look different from each other and consist of different member types dependent upon many factors, your team is probably already around you, with people you already know. A cardiovascular care team in general can provide efficient, patient-centered care across all care settings using a collaborative approach from all members. Now is the time to foster team-based cardiovascular care, given the survival of practices will very likely depend on how well cardiology practices can adapt to the changes occurring in health care.

A culture change or paradigm shift is usually required to make a team operational and efficient. Mutual respect, personal identification, collegiality and excellent communication and collaboration are keys to success. All persons on a cardiovascular care team are equally important in the jobs they perform for patient care. Moving toward a culture where team members encourage, educate and collaborate with other team members to allow every team member to provide services to the extent of their education, licensure, and training is an efficient way to handle the workload. This approach works well in both inpatient and outpatient settings. A member who is engaged as part of the team will be more willing to rise to the opportunity and assist with their team’s patient care, with increased job satisfaction, better retention, and overall better outlook. Passionate, knowledgeable care delivery will directly translate into increased patient satisfaction as well as increasing the capacity to deliver excellent care to a larger patient base.

When team members feel a sense of respect and support and are comfortable interacting among colleagues, they are more likely to raise issues and offer insightful, innovative ideas and solutions. Different perspectives voiced by team members with unique strengths and skills provide a better chance for more well-rounded solutions that are practical, adaptable and important. Further, questions raised by cardiac team members may lead to new cardiovascular team research, as much of the research in health-related cardiac self-care, anxiety and depression emotional issues, and cardiovascular symptoms, including chest pain and time to treatment have been led by nurse scientists.

There’s no time like the present to consider moving forward toward a team model to help improve the quality delivery of health care, and prepare practices for the delivery of efficient, high satisfaction, patient-centered, high quality health care our patients are requesting now, and in the future.

Learn more about Nurse Appreciation month on CardioSource.org.

*John D. Baker MD, FACC, FACP, FSCAI – Co-Chair, Cardiovascular Team Section Leadership Council Margo B. Minissian, RN, MSN, ACNP-BC, CLS-BC, CNS, AACC, FAHA – Co-Chair, Cardiovascular Team Section Leadership Council Janet F. Wyman MSN, RN, ACNS-BC, AACC – Incoming Co-Chair, Cardiovascular Team Section Leadership Council Jennifer Ballard-Hernandez, MSN, RN, FNP-BC/GNP-BC, CCRN, AACC Nancy M Albert PhD, CCNS, CHFN, CCRN, NE-BC, FAHA, FCCM Nancy C. Berg, RN, MA, ANP-BC, AACC

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