Interprofessional Care Advantages And Disadvantages

The Advantages of IPC to the Patient No matter how hard we may try, the importance of interprofessional collaboration in the healthcare system cannot be stressed enough. Of course, interprofessional care has a wide range of advantages in the smooth operating of a team. What is also to be taken into account, however, is the unbounded benefits from the patient’s perspective. As we all know – unfortunately many from our own experiences – the road to recovery requires not only the carefully calibrated skills and expertise of the individual but also the cooperation and constant communication of a vast team of healthcare providers. Through this complex operation come the many advantages to the patient’s treatment and overall health. As a result

As a consequence of the boost in communication, significantly less misdiagnoses are experienced. Thus, both the patient and medical facility benefit from the reduction in unnecessary readmissions. This undoubtedly places value on the importance of giving the correct initial treatment to patients through the act of successful interprofessional care.(7) Interprofessional education undeniably develops communication skills throughout the healthcare system. Subsequently, more emphasis is placed on the importance of expanding patients’ knowledge of the treatment that they are to receive and how to refine their self-care and management for the future. This can potentially improve the day-to-day lives of both the patient and medical staff. As the well-known Chinese proverb states: “Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish, and you feed him for a

Working in a hospital setting with a team that has members from many disciplines can sometimes lead to issues that are easily solved if only they are acknowledged. Some of the major issues within IP care are philosophical differences, disparity in power amongst the health care professionals (HCP), communication between the members, and inexperience in team working. The solutions that are mentioned in the following paragraphs are applicable in general and are not specific to certain cases, hence, the solutions do not apply to every