Team Development

As we know the success of the delivery of the safe, high quality Health and Social Care depends on effective team working at all levels and across the system. The HSC Leadership Centre plays a pivotal role in the support of this and has now developed a bespoke team-based model – Team STRIDE.

Team STRIDE is a new, evidence-based team support and development package for teams of all levels, professional backgrounds and skillsets (clinical/corporate etc.) across Northern Ireland’s Health and Social Care service (HSCNI). Inspired by Team.Stepps 3.0 (The Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2023); an internationally recognised communication and team training programme to improve patient safety, Team STRIDE has been informed by more than 30 years of patient safety and team training research. It demonstrates the positive impact of equipping healthcare professionals, patients and family caregivers with practical tools and strategies that strengthen collaboration, improve coordination, quality and safety enhance overall team performance across care settings.

Team STRIDE has built on this internationally renowned foundation to generate a tailored team development and support package for the integrated HSC context of NI. It comprises a process of five sequential stages the team will be guided through:

1. Triage and Scope,
2. Assess Readiness,
3. Design,
4. Deliver,
5. Sustain.

Unique to this process are team diagnostics such as the readiness questionnaire which will screen teams for suitability to proceed with Team STRIDE. A further team-wide diagnostic -the team perceptions survey- will inform the bespoke learning modules by identifying areas for the team to focus their collective effort to deliver the best care and sustain improvements. As appropriate, the new scenario suite at the HSC Leadership Centre may also be integrated to enrich this development journey.

Finally, to ensure integration of progress into daily team practice long-term, the sustain stage supports the team post-delivery of the learning modules. Initially the impact of their learning journey will be assessed through a team evaluation survey. A resulting team report pooling key messages and learning arising will be shared aiding reflection and informing support approaches e.g. coaching, feedback opportunities, refreshers, performance monitoring etc. Through this consistent reinforcement and organisational support, each member of the team will be best equipped to maintain improvements contributing to safe effective, high quality care through maximising team work.