title: The reality of teamwork in an acute mental health ward.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The study aims to explore the activities of mental health nurses in an acute inpatient ward. Teamwork emerged as one of several important matters for analysis.
  
  
  METHODS
  Ethnography and data collection took place through participant observation. This included recording of naturally occurring talk.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Three themes emerged: nurses' continuing attention to teamwork, the handover, and the team meeting. The vast potential of information to be communicated across the nursing team was observed to result in the use of summarizing practices. These appeared to mitigate nurses' ability to give sophisticated accounts of their evident expertise in multidisciplinary meetings.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Nurses should be challenged to articulate their interventions and display their work within the acute mental health setting.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Health and Social Care, University of Chester, Warrington Campus, Warrington, UK. m.deacon@chester.ac.uk
authors.forename: Maureen
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Deacon
authors.forename: Michelle
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Cleary
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D003299:Cooperative Behavior; D004739:England; D005260:Female; D006126:Group Processes; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D008297:Male; D001523:Mental Disorders / Q000451:nursing*; D008875:Middle Aged; D009737:Nursing Records; D009746:Nursing, Team; D062209:Patient Handoff; D011568:Psychiatric Nursing