The Importance of Interprofessional Collaboration in Healthcare
- Teamwork in healthcare contributes to better patient health outcomes.
- Clinical staff and administration of healthcare organizations must work collaboratively.
- Alignment with the guidelines for effective interprofessional collaboration is key to performance improvement.
- Adherence to four competencies of interprofessional collaboration sets high service quality standards and ensures patient safety.
Values and Ethics for Interprofessional Practice
- Organizations must develop and apply their code of values and ethics to be shared by the members of the healthcare team.
- The representatives of different professions need to work with a priority set on respecting the values of their organizations (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
- The appreciation of and respect to the shared values under the guidance of ethical rules are the basis of productive collaboration.
- This competency helps to align the diverse professions involved in the treatment process with core priorities.
Roles and Responsibilities
- One should comprehend one’s role and responsibilities within a team.
- The roles of others have to be understood to facilitate communication in a time-consuming manner.
- Other professions’ responsibilities’ understanding helps to assess patients’ needs better (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
- The recognition and thorough carrying out of a team member’s responsibilities advance health promotion.
- This competency is crucial in complex healthcare units.
Interprofessional Communication
- Communication is the core of any collaboration.
- Respectful communication with patients contributes to their health outcomes and satisfaction.
- Effective communication with other professionals provides a full picture of a problem.
- Communication with communities enhances health promotion endeavors (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
- Subordination in information exchange within an organization facilitates the quality of services.
Teams and Teamwork
- Building a team helps to succeed at roles distribution.
- The roles of planning, delivering, and evaluating care must be assigned and managed.
- The choice of “relationship-building values” increases the effectiveness of teamwork (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016, p. 10).
- The teams have to be aimed at implementing healthcare programs and plans.
- The most effective teams work in a timely, efficient, and productive manner.
Components of Values and Ethics Competency
- The interests of the served population are a priority.
- Cultural diversity needs to be respected and thoroughly addressed in the course of service delivery (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
- The relationships with patients are based on trust.
- It is important to “demonstrate high standards of ethical conduct and quality of care” (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016, p. 11).
- One needs to improve competencies in a respective profession to ensure the most qualitative contribution to the team.
Components of the Roles and Responsibilities Competency
- The roles and responsibilities of a professional must be clearly understood by the patients.
- The distribution of roles must be optimized by the tasks the team is expected to accomplish.
- The limitations of the scope of expertise should be identified to refer to team-mates when needed.
- The relations with professionals outside of the healthcare system improve the quality of care (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
Components of Interprofessional Communication
- The utilization of proper communication tools ensures the quality of task completion.
- The conflict should be managed with the application of appropriate language, even in stressful situations.
- The subordination of information exchange must be organized to avoid delays in service delivery.
- Timely and constructive feedback to the roles of other professionals on the team might improve the overall interprofessional collaboration.
- Healthcare programs should articulate the importance of teamwork and the importance of communication.
Components of Teams and Teamwork Competency
- All members must understand team development.
- Diverse professionals should be included in healthcare programs’ goal delivery to served populations (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016).
- Guidelines need to be formulated to organize teamwork.
- Both teamwork and individual performance must be evaluated and corrected.
EBP Intervention
- EBP interprofessional collaboration educational intervention might be applied to enhance teamwork in healthcare settings.
- The adherence to WHO’s “Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice” is crucial.
- WHO’s document articulates the importance of interprofessional collaboration on a global scale.
- Training and conferences need to be initiated to educate staff about the core competencies of teamwork.
- The development of the competencies of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare staff contributes to patient health outcomes.
References
Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, DC: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.
Pinhoa, D., Parreira, C., Queiroz, E., Abbad, G., & Reeves, S. (2018). Investigating the nature of interprofessional collaboration in primary care across the Western Health Region of Brasília, Brazil: A study protocol. Journal Of Interprofessional Care, 32(2), 228-230.