title: The veterinary health care team: going from good to great.
abstract: Effective veterinary health care teams are crucial to the successful practice of veterinary medicine and contribute greatly to everything from excellent patient and client care to practice financial stability and practitioner and staff quality of work life. Contrary to a commonly held belief, healthy teams do not form naturally. This article examines the complex nature of successful teams and outlines a process that can be followed to assist practices in their efforts to evolve from ordinary work groups to highly interactive teams.
authors.affiliation: External Relations and Development, Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164-6610, USA. kruby@vetmed.wsu.edu
authors.forename: Kathleen L
authors.initials: KL
authors.lastname: Ruby
authors.forename: Richard M
authors.initials: RM
authors.lastname: DeBowes
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002983:Clinical Competence; D003142:Communication; D006801:Humans; D007398:Interpersonal Relations; D010348:Patient Care Team / Q000592:standards*; D011361:Professional Competence; D011787:Quality of Health Care; D012941:Social Responsibility; D014481:United States; D014730:Veterinary Medicine / Q000592:standards*