Types of Teams

Unidisciplinary¹ 

• Made of many providers from a single background, e.g., a group home health OTs providing home care.
• All team members share the same professional skills and training.
• All team members speak a common language and function in the same role within the group.

Intradisciplinary² 

• Composed of professionals from one discipline, but includes team members with different training and skills within the discipline, e.g., OTR and COTA.

Interdisciplinary^3 4 

• Frequently used in healthcare.
• Require organizational support.
• A group of professionals from different disciplines working interdependently in the same setting.
• Team members interact both formally and informally.
• Each team member’s contributions are considered.
• Information is communicated and problems are solved in a systematic way during team meetings.
• Promotes work interdependence, self-management, and responsibility.
• Share a common goal.

Transdisciplinary⁵ 

• Members share knowledge, skills, and responsibilities across disciplinary boundaries in assessment and service planning.⁶ 
• Involves a boundary-blurring between disciplines and implies cross-training and flexibility in task-completion.⁷ 
• Different than interdisciplinary as it requires each team member to be familiar with the concepts and approaches of other members.
• Discipline authorization fades to yield a broader and deeper analysis.
• Values the knowledge and skill of team members.
• Dependent on effective and frequent communication among members.
• Focus on the problem as part of a broader issue.
• Promotes efficiency in the delivery of services.
• Members develop a level of trust and mutual confidence in engaging in teaching and learning across disciplinary boundaries.
• Members retain their responsibility for services provided in their own discipline.
• Specific skills and training of each discipline are less required compared to generic skills that many disciplines may share.

Multidisciplinary^6 7 4 

• Hierarchically organized.
• A gatekeeper/project manager/team leader determines which other disciplines are involved in the process, e.g., physician.
• Composed of members from more than one discipline.
• Each discipline submits findings and recommendations to achieve goals independently but interacts formally.
• Little or no awareness of other discipline’s work.
• Involves independent decision-making rather than a coordination of information.
• Team members only feel responsible for their own work, and may not feel a responsibility for the team to function or be effective.⁸ 
• Assessments and consultations are conducted separately with little communication between team members.
• Problems are treated in parallel.
• Communication across the disciplines may be lacking and translate to poor quality of care.

1. CNMTL. (n.d.). Health Care Teams. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/dental/cbdpp/sl2/mod03_multi_1a.html[↩]
2. CNMTL. (n.d.). Health Care Teams. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/dental/cbdpp/sl2/mod03_multi_1a.html[↩]
3. Dyer, J. A. (2003). Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinary educational models and nursing education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 24(4), 186-188.[↩]
4. CNMTL. (n.d.). Health Care Teams. Retrieved from http://www.columbia.edu/itc/hs/dental/cbdpp/sl2/mod03_multi_1a.html[↩][↩]
5. Dyer, J. A. (2003). Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and transdisciplinaryeducational models and nursing education. Nursing Education Perspectives, 24(4), 186-188.[↩]
6. Garner, H. (1995). Teamwork models and experience in education. Boston: Allyn and Bacon.[↩][↩]
7. Hoeman, S. (1996). Rehabilitation nursing: Process and application. St. Louis, MO: Mosby Year Book.[↩][↩]
8. Zeiss, A. M., & Steffer, A. M. (1996). Interdisciplinary health care teams: The basic unit of geriatric care. In L. L. Carstensen, B. A. Edelstein, & L. Dornbrand (Eds.), The practical handbook of clinical gerontology (pp. 423–449). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.[↩]