Teamwork Makes the Dreamwork

At World Pediatric Project, the operations generally run very smoothly. Overall, I would say that there is very little that could be improved. However, I would say that the organization could improve their communication between the interns and those who work in the organization. There are often times where I am not sure what I will be doing the coming day. I understand that this is somewhat unavoidable as we are dealing with ever-changing doctor’s appointments, but there are often days when I do not know what I will be doing. As the day progresses, I am often driving between errands, waiting for the next text to say where I should be. I feel like in order to reduce confusion and create productivity, it would be very helpful to know what I am doing when I come into the office at the beginning of the day. I am always willing to do tasks, but if I am unaware of what I should be doing, I don’t always feel like I am being helpful.

I think a second way of improvement would be to create a master list of the patients’ doctors appointment notes for everyone to see. Currently volunteers, interns and those who work at World Pediatric Project take notes and then send them to one contact within the organization. However, this results in the others not knowing what is happening with the patient. I do understand there are issues of confidentiality; however, there are many people who need to know the information and there isn’t an easily accessible way for people to upload doctors notes to facilitate that process.

Overall, everyone wants to work as a team and collaborate, but I think that these two issues slightly inhibit this process. I have already focused in earlier blogs about how important communication is for the organization to work, however; as I continue to become a part of the group, I think that it could be improved even more. I have learned in my leadership classes how vital it is for leaders to communicate with their followers. It is also very important for communication to occur across all levels of the organization. Given that, with the combination of providing task lists for interns each day, and by creating an accessible database (for those who are authorized) to upload the doctors’ notes, I think the team would run much more smoothly.