Improving healthcare team harmony through collaborative team reflection and mindfulness

Hospital wards, staffed by the multidisciplinary team, are complex environments where teamwork, communication and psychological safety is essential for coordinated care delivery, yet are faced with challenges such as staffing changes and complex care needs. However, there is little literature on interventions to assist staff connect as a team. We evaluated a brief daily group based on team reflection and mindfulness aimed at a multidisciplinary general medicine team, using measures of team functioning (effectiveness, communication, and psychological safety). We found that participants reported significant improvement in the meeting’s effectiveness ( U= 184, p=0.013), team morale ( U= 123, p<0.001), and focus ( U= 183, p<0.001) after the program’s commencement. Furthermore, participants who attended the program for at least a week reported they felt more psychologically safe ( U= 116, p=0.032). We also found significant positive correlation between measures of team functioning and the number of sessions they attended the program (effectiveness of the interdisciplinary meeting r=0.509, p<0.001; team’s communication and functioning (r=0.509, p<0.001). The post-intervention focus group highlighted the program helped build relationships within the team, improve psychological safety, and subsequently shifted the team’s behaviour to be more supportive of the overall team. Our program improved the functioning of a multidisciplinary healthcare team, with the overall aim to deliver better patient care. ### Competing Interest Statement The authors have declared no competing interest. ### Funding Statement This study did not receive any funding ### Author Declarations I confirm all relevant ethical guidelines have been followed, and any necessary IRB and/or ethics committee approvals have been obtained. Yes The details of the IRB/oversight body that provided approval or exemption for the research described are given below: Alfred Health Ethics & Research Governance of Alfred Health gave ethical approval for this work (Protocol code 501/22) I confirm that all necessary patient/participant consent has been obtained and the appropriate institutional forms have been archived, and that any patient/participant/sample identifiers included were not known to anyone (e.g., hospital staff, patients or participants themselves) outside the research group so cannot be used to identify individuals. Yes I understand that all clinical trials and any other prospective interventional studies must be registered with an ICMJE-approved registry, such as ClinicalTrials.gov. I confirm that any such study reported in the manuscript has been registered and the trial registration ID is provided (note: if posting a prospective study registered retrospectively, please provide a statement in the trial ID field explaining why the study was not registered in advance). Yes I have followed all appropriate research reporting guidelines, such as any relevant EQUATOR Network research reporting checklist(s) and other pertinent material, if applicable. Yes All data produced in the present study are available upon reasonable request to the authors