Interdisciplinary Team Training and Diversity:

Abstract

Interdisciplinary health care teams have become a critical part of patient care in geriatric medicine. Team members have diverse ethnic/cultural backgrounds, professional disciplines, and positions in the hospital, which contribute to conflict and miscommunication. Diversity training programs have been developed to address these problems, but have been recently criticized. This article discusses three areas of need for diversity training, outlines a theoretical framework for diversity in health care teams, and suggests ways to improve training effectiveness.