The use of the phrase “health care team” raises a number of philosophical questions — the fundamental one being whether it is appropriate to apply the word “team” to groups of health care professionals. This column will argue that answering that first question affirmatively will raise other ethical issues. For example, team rhetoric, drawn upon metaphors of athletic teams, is deceptive in the context of health care and can lead to incorrect concepts of the ethical responsibilities of the health care team and its members. Specifically discussed here will be the normative conflict between an individual’s loyalty to the health care team and that person's responsibility to “blow the whistle” on team members who have acted improperly.

One way to answer these questions is to use a general definition of “team” to determine whether there are any “teams” in health care based on that definition. Alternatively, one could look at several uses of the term outside the context of health care, and then see whether the health care situation is sufficiently analogous to these uses to justify the use of the term.