Consequences of Participating in Multidisciplinary Medical Team Meetings for Surgical, Nonsurgical, and Supporting Specialties

Abstract

This study examines the consequences for medical specialists of participating in multidisciplinary medical team meetings in terms of perceived clinical autonomy, domain distinctiveness, and professional accountability. These consequences may influence their willingness to cooperate and the quality of teamwork. The authors hypothesized that multidisciplinary medical team meetings would be more of a threat to the professional identity of surgical specialists than to the professional identity of nonsurgical and supporting specialists. A survey among 1,827 Dutch medical specialists supported the authors' hypotheses. However, a few specific specialties had response patterns that deviated from our expectations. The results are related to specialty choice, to the training of medical specialties, and to having a role in leading team meetings.