Author Description

This dissertation, "Exploring Multidisciplinary Teamwork in Community Elderly Healthcare in Hong Kong" by Fei, Liu,, was obtained from The University of Hong Kong (Pokfulam, Hong Kong) and is being sold pursuant to Creative Commons: Attribution 3.0 Hong Kong License. The content of this dissertation has not been altered in any way. We have altered the formatting in order to facilitate the ease of printing and reading of the dissertation. All rights not granted by the above license are retained by the author. Abstract: Hong Kong's ageing population, due to a decreasing fertility rate and increasing life expectancy, creates challenges for society such as sustained pressure on healthcare, social welfare and public finance. The elderly often experience complex health problems, and multidisciplinary teams in community healthcare have emerged to address their specialized needs. However, little research in Hong Kong has sought to understand how members in such teams work together in their goal of supporting the elderly. This study aimed to examine the experiences and perceptions of members in multidisciplinary teams, to explore the factors associated with effective teamwork and to understand the underlying process and mechanism of the interaction among teamwork contributors. Seventeen members from two teams in a community elderly healthcare unit were included in the study. Non-participant observation and semi-structured individual face-to-face in-depth interviews were used to collect team members' experiences and perceptions of teamwork. Four themes emerged after analyzing the transcripts from the interviews: communication, team structure, leadership, and team member quality. Communication was the core behaviour in teamwork. Formal communication facilitated the transmission of routine and structured information, while informal communication delivered information in a flexible manner for urgent and complex issues. Team structure was the organizational found