Why Coworker Relationships are So Important in Senior Care

In any field, having a good relationship with your coworkers is important to your success and the company’s success. However, especially in senior care, it becomes less of a virtue and more of a necessity. When caring for individuals, it is absolutely vital to have a team that is able to work together with ease. Here are some of the benefits of having good relationships with your coworkers in healthcare.

It facilitates teamwork.

In senior living, there are a variety of departments that have to function as one unit in order to provide the best care possible for the individual. Assisted living, for example, has caregivers, dining staff, activities associates, and more. All these departments need to work together and the best way to have that sense of teamwork is to have a good relationship with your coworkers across these different departments. UCDavis Health notes that, “Nurses collaborate with all disciplines of the health care team to achieve best patient outcomes. This requires consistent and coordinated care of a patient through a unified plan of care, and information sharing amongst health care team members.” 

Good relationships are more likely to bring success.

The success of senior living communities is dependent on every worker aiming towards the unified goal of caring for the seniors. It’s no secret that when you have coworkers that work well together you’re your business is much more likely to succeed. DailyNurse discussed the importance of this in the healthcare field especially by saying that teamwork “boosts morale, shows appreciation for our coworkers, and brings some humanity back into our daily lives.” 

Other people are dependent on your team to do its job effectively.

When working in a very intimate environment, such as memory care or post-acute care, the people in your care are completely dependent of you for their health and wellbeing. If you are not working together as efficiently as possible, those people will suffer the consequences. In addition, coworkers can help relate and form a sense of importance for the tasks that they are doing. NCBI found that, “Relationships at work make employees aware of the significance of the tasks they are performing. In this sense, a supportive working environment is proposed to contribute to the awareness of the differences that employees are making to others.” Put simply, when a team works well together, the individual in their care benefits the most.

It creates a bond for a lifetime.

Finally, just like in any field, having good relationships with coworkers can help your life in all aspects, even outside of work. The workplace can be a great place to form connections with others that can last for a lifetime. According to our VP of Human Resources and Talent Management, Unanda Bell, “We take great pride in creating relationships among our staff that will last a lifetime. There is something so bonding about working in healthcare. When you’re caring for another person, we need our staff to be able to work well together and be on the same page at all times. I’ve found that this experience has helped facilitate relationships between staff members that are stronger than most other fields.”

At Spring Hills Senior Communities, we value the relationships between coworkers in senior living for the benefit of the people in our care. To learn more and to find a community near you, click here.