It seems to be taken as self evident in health care and other organisations that teams and teamwork are beneficial, often based on little evidence. This paper uses data from a small study of cardiopulmonary resuscitation in a trust hospital to reflect upon teamwork in a situation which is stressful, requires prompt, brief action and has clear-cut notions of success and failure. CPR teams resemble what Sundstrom et al. (1990) term action and negotiation teams; their examples include sports teams, combat units and surgery teams. However, although the CPR 'team' in this setting had to perform together, they generally did not work together nor practice their skills together, and it is argued that there may be misuse of the concept of teamwork in this and similar instances in health care.