This blog comes from Jen Yates, Clinical Theme Fellow for our Stroke Rehabilitation Programme.

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability in the UK, with the greatest impact occurring when stroke survivors leave hospital. In parts of the East Midlands, stroke specialist teams have been commissioned to provide therapy for stroke survivors in their own homes to help them achieve recovery through specialist rehabilitation.

Community stroke teams are multidisciplinary teams that consist of individuals from different professions, such as occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech and language therapists, nurses, rehabilitation assistants and administrators, who work collaboratively to address the needs of the patient holistically.
Whilst there is a wealth of stroke specialist training, and particular skills and competencies that members of stroke teams must achieve, there is very little emphasis on multidisciplinary team training. The EMAHSN Stroke Rehabilitation Theme have delivered a multidisciplinary team effectiveness programme with Northamptonshire Community Stroke Team to help them explore their team effectiveness and embedded team practices, to celebrate their successes, and reflect on areas for change or improvement. Northamptonshire Community Stroke Team learnt about theories of team effectiveness, models of change, participated in focus groups, and were supported in their use of metrics and data entry into the Sentinel Stroke National Audit Programme. This type of training should make the patient experience a truly holistic one, where team members are collaborating, sharing ideas and information for the benefit of patients. Members of the team who took part represented all professional disciplines and all banding levels.

The programme of five workshops was well received by all members of the team who took part, with all participants reporting that overall the programme was 'good' or 'very good'. 90% of the participating team members felt that they could significantly apply the learning from the workshops to their work, with the remaining 10% rating this as very significantly. All participants felt that the programme facilitated communication and collaboration across the team. Comments from participants included that they had "developed new techniques for projects" and that the programme had helped them to "be more effective as a senior member of the team".

At the end of the programme, Northamptonshire Community Stroke Team set SMART goals to help them increase their multidisciplinary team effectiveness, and elected a Team Knowledge Champion to liaise with the EMAHSN Stroke Rehabilitation Theme who will be following up with the team in six months' time.
The programme continues to be rolled out across the East Midlands, and the EMAHSN remain committed to working collaboratively with healthcare professionals, aiming to improve care for patients, share knowledge, and celebrate successes.