Evaluating Student Groups’ Perspectives of Their Teamwork Through the Seven C’s of Team Science

Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center (LSUHSC) in New Orleans fosters interprofessional learning through the Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (CIPECP). The CIPECP established a two-year longitudinal curriculum known as “Team UpTM” where students from different health professional programs come together and learn interprofessional skills. These programs include audiology, cardiovascular sonography, clinical laboratory sciences, clinical rehabilitation and counseling, dental hygiene, dentistry, medicine, nursing, occupational therapy, physician assistant, physical therapy, public health, respiratory therapy, and speech language pathology. The focus of Team UpTM is to teach students about each other’s roles on the healthcare team and how to work with one another. Students learn about teamwork through the “Seven C’s of Team Science.”
Dr. Eduardo Salas, PhD from Rice University compiled “The Seven C’s of Team Science,” which are characteristics that optimize team performance. “Capability” means that each person on the team has the right set of abilities to accomplish the team’s goal and the team utilizes this member’s potential. “Cooperation” is that colleagues have positive attitudes with one another, and “coordination” indicates that team members behave in an effective manner. “Communication” requires that team members convey information successfully. “Cognition” details that team members have a shared understanding of priorities and roles. “Coaching” means that team members are equipped with the necessary leadership skills accomplish their goals, and “conditions” signifies that there is a nurturing environment with positive outside factors.
At the end of the 2021-2022 academic year, sixty teams from Team UpTM Year 2 were required to complete a reflection on the growth of their team using the Seven C’s. Student teams were asked to pick two of the Seven C’s they believed they excelled in during the past two years. Each of the reflections were read and recorded. Each of the sixty groups submitted two C’s that they believed were their strongest. Two submissions (4 C’s) were discarded because their responses were unclear. The n value, or sample size, was 116. The two most submitted C’s were cooperation and communication, each receiving twenty-seven submissions. With this new knowledge, the CIPECP has information which indicates what are the most common realized skills of the Team UpTM teams. Providing resources to address less chosen C’s would provide healthcare students with the tools needed to succeed in their professions. Hopefully, this information can be expanded for the betterment of interprofessional education.