Abstract
This qualitative ethnographic study describes an intergenerational living experience with an applied learning component that enabled the study of care in an interdisciplinary context. This qualitative ethnographic study draws on 44 interviews, observations of 62 meetings, and a 5-year immersion at a large, urban, senior housing-with-services care organization. The study explores the nature and type of teamwork. Team effort was categorized into five types of teams: floor teams, nursing home interdisciplinary team, housing-with-services interdisciplinary team, specialty teams (hospice and rehabilitation care), and “sandwich” teamlets. Results show that patient focus has the potential to foster team effort, and may be the building block for developing more linked interdependencies in teams in similar care contexts. Floor work in particular, because of its applied and varied nature, can be harnessed to discern needed elements and improvements for team design.