Context

By default, cancer care requires a multidisciplinary concept of care and treatment. Yet, few healthcare providers have successfully implemented an interdisciplinary team that comprises nurses, psychologists, social workers, and physicians. In 2010, a pilot project, called VOLTIGO, to explore such novel and interdisciplinary team work in cancer care, was initiated jointly by HFR, the association of six regional hospitals in the canton of Fribourg, and the Cancer League of Fribourg, Switzerland. The challenge in the early stages of its formation was to form and specify a clear and coherent identity of the team and its task. Thus, the goal of the workshop was to identify the status of the team's cohesion and focus, current fault lines and challenges, as well as to discuss a way forward.

Strategic goal of intervention

Only two months into the team's initial formation and within a three-hour workshop, the six members of the team gathered to explore the status of the team in terms of its cohesion and focus. The intervention aimed to provide a psychologically safe space to discuss critical issues in the early stages of interdisciplinary team formation. The actual assignment for the team was to build a joint model of how they saw the current status of the team.