Psychologist leadership on inpatient rehabilitation teams: Organizational science in practice.

Abstract

Purpose/Objective: Teams are a critical part of modern health care, particularly in rehabilitation settings where multiple providers with different backgrounds and training work toward common goals. Rehabilitation psychologists have a legacy of providing leadership and influence for complex teams. Knowledge of interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary systems, leadership within those systems, and consultation across disciplines are foundational competencies for rehabilitation psychologists. Research Method/Design: This paper summarizes the different roles rehabilitation psychologists serve on health care teams and identifies opportunities for improved effectiveness. An overview of leadership theory over time is provided. Results: Even when psychologists are not formal team leaders, opportunities exist to leverage team member strengths and encourage the development of leader behaviors across the team in support of good patient care. Conclusions/Implications: Drawing from the management and organizational development literature, evidence-based suggestions are provided for rehabilitation psychologists seeking to foster healthy team dynamics within and among health care teams. The authors encourage rehabilitation psychologists to use their unique training to facilitate shared leadership on teams that foster and encourage a climate of trust, psychological safety, healthy and productive conflict, along with strong communication practices. These issues became even more salient as teams transitioned to virtual platforms during the pandemic and continue to adapt to hybrid work environments. Impact and ImplicationsThis paper integrates management and organizational behavior theory with rehabilitation psychology competencies to offer evidence-based suggestions for enhancing leadership behaviors on health care teams. This is one of the first papers to highlight the potential leadership strategies rehabilitation psychologists can employ on transdisciplinary teams, which consist of highly educated and skilled individuals who likely have different reporting structures. By leveraging their education, training, and integration of evidence-based practices, rehabilitation psychologists can aid in teams' incorporation of recommendations that will allow for healthy and productive processes and dissent in pursuit of excellence both within individual teams and across multiteam systems.

Positive impacts of psychological pain treatments: Supplementary analyses of a randomized clinical trial.

“…Another option for structuring therapeutic discussions is the PERMA model, which calls attention to five elements that contribute to flourishing and well-being: positive emotions, engagement, relationships, meaning, and achievement (Seligman, 2011(Seligman, , 2018Turner & Bombardier, 2019). Rehabilitation psychologists are also well-positioned in their roles as interdisciplinary/transdisciplinary team members and leaders (Tackett et al, 2021) to advocate for positive psychology-informed approaches in all aspects of patients' rehabilitation care…”

Advocacy: The seventh foundational principle and core competency of rehabilitation psychology.

“…Furthermore, Caplan and Shechter (1993) argued that disabled patients are often expected to enthusiastically participate in activities that can be inherently frustrating and even humiliating. Through fostering and encouraging a climate of trust, psychological safety, and healthy and productive conflict, along with strong communication practices, rehabilitation psychologists should model patient-centered collaborative care (Tackett et al, 2021). Rehabilitation psychologists in their work with teams must ensure that the “environment and the multiple factors that influence behavior become the concern of everyone in the rehabilitation team” in order to advocate for ethical and culturally appropriate interventions (Kennedy, 2012, p. 6).…”

Intentional leveraging of psychologist competencies: A case for expanding administrative leadership training opportunities in the Veterans Health Administration.

“…These include composing teams, defining mission elements, establishing expectations, facilitating "sensemaking," and encouraging team self-management. Psychologists are well suited to applying evidence-based approaches to these tasks and facilitating effective team functioning due to a long-standing tradition of collaboration (Tackett et al, 2021).…”