Resource Center

This paper was originally published in the Proceedings of the Sixteenth Annual Interdisciplinary Health Team Care Conference, which took place September 22-24, 1994 in Chicago, Illinois.  It is reproduced here with the permission of the authors.

The health care literature lacks rigor in demanding precise definitions or common descriptors for different types of teams in health care settings. Limited funding for health care team research may be a factor. However, the metaphors used by health professionals are readily attainable, might provide clues to their perceptions of teams, and in turn might help us understand how different teams function.
This exploratory study is an attempt to expose some of the metaphors that health professionals use to define health care teams. It is also an attempt to investigate whether health professionals apply sports metaphors to health care teams and what sports metaphors they use. If these definitions could be reiterated and understood, it might help to prepare health professionals for the practice of teamwork.