In the United States there is no single statute called a teamwork law. Instead, expectations about collaboration appear in professional codes of ethics, in accreditation standards, in the Medicare and Medicaid Conditions of Participation and in the way state boards interpret unprofessional conduct. Knowing where those expectations sit helps you explain your conduct when it is questioned.

In this lesson, you will be able to

Identify collaboration duties in the codes of the main U.S. professions.
Name federal regulations that require interdisciplinary care planning in specific settings.
Explain how accreditation standards and state boards turn teamwork into an enforceable expectation.

Professional codes

Profession	Source	What it says about working with others
Physicians	AMA Code of Medical Ethics Opinion 10.8, Collaborative Care	Physicians leading clinical teams should understand the range of their own and other members' skills, clearly articulate individual and team responsibilities, be receptive to colleagues' suggestions, encourage open discussion so each member's opinion is heard and considered, and promote a culture of respect, collegiality and transparency. Collectively, physicians should advocate for teamwork education and for institutional policies to resolve disagreements that affect patients.
Nurses	ANA Code of Ethics for Nurses (2025), Provisions 6.3 and 8.1	Nurses help build an ethical work environment through collective and interprofessional effort, and build collaborative relationships with other disciplines and the public, which the Code says requires listening, mutual trust, respect, transparency, shared decision-making, accountability and open communication.
Pharmacists	American Pharmacists Association Code of Ethics	Pharmacists are asked to honor what colleagues in pharmacy and in other professions bring to care, and to seek their input or refer when a patient needs it.
Dentists	ADA Code, Section 2.B (Consultation and Referral)	A dentist is expected to bring in colleagues with special skills or experience when that would protect or benefit the patient, and to refer onward when the case calls for it.
All licensees	State practice acts and board rules	Most acts define unprofessional conduct broadly enough to include conduct that interferes with patient care, such as failing to communicate necessary information or behaving in ways that disrupt the delivery of care. Wording varies by state.

None of these codes asks you to agree with every colleague or to defer to rank. They ask you to understand what others contribute, to share what you know, to listen, and to resolve disagreement in ways that protect the patient.

Federal rules that require interdisciplinary planning

In some settings, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) builds teamwork directly into its Conditions of Participation. These rules apply to facilities that participate in Medicare and Medicaid, and surveyors check them.

Setting	Regulation	Team requirement (summary)
Nursing facilities	42 CFR 483.21(b)(2)	A comprehensive care plan must be developed within 7 days after the comprehensive assessment and prepared by an interdisciplinary team that includes the attending physician, a registered nurse and a nurse aide with responsibility for the resident, a member of food and nutrition services staff, the resident and representative to the extent practicable, and other appropriate staff. The team reviews and revises it after each assessment.
Hospice	42 CFR 418.56	An interdisciplinary group, including a physician, a registered nurse, a social worker (or marriage and family therapist or mental health counselor) and a pastoral or other counselor, establishes the plan of care with the attending physician, patient or representative and primary caregiver, and reviews it as often as the patient's condition requires and at least every 15 calendar days. A registered nurse is designated to coordinate care.
Hospitals	42 CFR 482.23(b)(4)	Nursing staff must develop and keep current a nursing care plan for each patient, which may be part of an interdisciplinary care plan.

The nursing facility rule is worth noticing because it names the nurse aide. Federal regulators decided that the person who helps a resident wash, dress and eat holds information the plan cannot do without. Leaving that voice out of care planning is not only poor teamwork; in a certified facility it is a compliance gap.

Accreditation and organizational policies

Accreditors add a further layer. In its leadership chapter, The Joint Commission (standard LD.03.01.01) asks every accredited organization to spell out, in a written code, which conduct is acceptable and which erodes a culture of safety, and to run a defined process for dealing with the second kind. Hospitals and critical access hospitals now meet that expectation in a different place: from January 1, 2026, the Accreditation 360 redesign folded it into National Performance Goal NPG.02.03.01, on culture of safety. Other program types keep it in the leadership chapter, and what surveyors look for has not changed. Locally, medical staff bylaws and nursing policies set further rules on consultation, how colleagues communicate and how quickly a page must be answered, and these local documents are what a peer review committee or manager opens first when a team conflict is reviewed. Disruptive behavior as a disciplinary matter is treated at length in Professionalism in U.S. Healthcare Practice; this lesson stays with the everyday team skills that mean those policies seldom have to be used.

How boards see teamwork

State boards do not discipline licensees for being a poor team player in the abstract. Teamwork reaches a board when a breakdown in collaboration contributes to patient harm, when a licensee fails to communicate information a colleague needed, when a licensee ignores or obstructs another professional's legitimate safety concern, or when conduct toward colleagues is abusive. In each case the board asks what this licensee did, measured against what a reasonable member of the profession would have done. The team context explains events; it does not transfer your individual responsibility to others.

Case study

The care plan meeting without the aide

A skilled nursing facility in Ohio holds quarterly care plan meetings at 2 p.m. Nurse aides on day shift are usually busy with residents and rarely attend. For a resident with dementia, the aides had noticed she was trying to stand alone after supper and had begun checking on her more often. The care plan, written without their input, still described her as 'transfers with one assist, low fall risk'. A new aide, following the plan, did not know about the evening pattern. The resident fell and fractured her wrist.

During the state survey that followed, surveyors reviewed whether the interdisciplinary team required by 42 CFR 483.21(b)(2) had included a nurse aide with responsibility for the resident, and whether the plan had been revised after observed changes.

Team issue

The people with the most relevant knowledge were structurally excluded from planning.

Professional issue

The RN coordinating the plan had a duty to gather input from the aides even if they could not attend, for example by asking them before the meeting.

Better practice

Schedule meetings when aides can attend, use a short pre-meeting input form, and treat aide observations as assessment data.

Apply it

Find your profession's code of ethics and locate the passage that deals with colleagues or collaboration. Write one sentence on how it applies to your current role.

If you work in a nursing facility, hospice or hospital, check how your organization meets the interdisciplinary planning requirement. Whose voice is most often missing?

Key points

Teamwork expectations sit in professional codes (AMA Opinion 10.8, ANA Provisions 6.3 and 8.1, APhA, ADA 2.B), CMS rules and accreditation standards.
CMS requires interdisciplinary planning in nursing facilities (483.21), hospice (418.56) and, through nursing care plans, hospitals (482.23).
Accredited organizations must define unacceptable conduct in writing and manage it through a set process (Joint Commission LD.03.01.01, or NPG.02.03.01 for hospitals from 2026); disruptive behavior is covered in Professionalism in U.S. Healthcare Practice.
Boards judge each licensee's own conduct within the team; the team does not absorb individual accountability.