Leadership and team building in clinical practice (according to the results of a case study)
Authors: Belebeyeva A. O. , Shevchenko M. V. , Vernigor Yu. G. , Semenyuk L. M. 
Published: December 2021

The purpose of this paper is to study the distribution of the roles of medical staff in teams that provide medical care in a tertiary health care facility.

Materials and methods. The study was conducted among medical workers of the Ukrainian Scientific and Practical Center for Endocrine Surgery, Transplantation of Endocrine Organs and Tissues of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine: Departments of Reproductive Medicine, Surgery and Consultative Clinic according to R. Belbin’s methodology for diagnosing team roles using BSPIQ uestionnaire (Belbin Self-Perception Inventory).

The study involved 25 health workers from three structural units of the center: the Department of Reproductive Medicine (7 respondents), a consultative clinic of different specialties (11) and the Department of Endocrine Surgery (7).
This study was conducted in several stages. In the first stage, respondents identified and assessed their role in the team based on self-assessment. Respondents answered «Yes» / «No» to 3 short questions concerning the knowledge about the distribution of team members according to the typology of roles proposed by R.M. Belbin (1); belief that the roles that employees perform in the department are identical to their positions or expectations; confidence in the definition of team roles by personality type (3). The following is the direct diagnosis and definition of team roles among the selected medical staff of this health care institution.The survey was conducted during COVID-19 pande­mic, so it has some sampling limitations and is a pilot study.

Results and discussion. According to the survey, it was found that all respondents were not previously familiar with this methodology. Every second respondent does not believe in the identity of the roles that employees perform in these teams, their positions or descriptions. However, 84 % of respondents indicated the dependence of team roles on personality type.

The results of respondents’ self-assessment of their own roles in teams and direct diagnosis of the distribution of roles using the BSPI-questionnaire coincided with only 5 % of respondents. According to the study, there was a statistically significant relationship between gender and team membership. In particular, only women work in team I (Department of Reproductive Medicine), and 91 % of men (p < 0.002) work in team III (Department of Endocrine Surgery). The situation is similar in terms of position and work in individual clinical teams studied (p < 0.001). The hypothesis of the existence of a relationship between the age of the respondent and the severity of his command role behavioral functions was not confirmed (p < 0.991).The teams differed statistically significantly in the filling of roles (p < 0.087). Separate regularities of distribution of roles in each of the studied commands are revealed.

Conclusions. This study points to the importance of studying the distribution of roles in teams. According to its results, it was found that the team (behavioral) role (role) of a member of the studied teams depends on gender and position, but is not related to the age factor. Team roles in the studied clinical teams are distributed differently: the most pronounced role characteristics in all teams are a specialist (expert), a completer-finisher (controller); the absence of a coordinator role has been established. Roles such as monitor evaluator and resource investigator exist only in the team of doctors of the consulting clinic.