The Pros And Cons Of Interprofessional Care

Introduction

We live in a world that revolves around collaborating with others. At a young age, we are exposed to working together and this continues into the workforce. The majority of jobs involve cooperation amongst co-workers to be successful (). Health professionals use interprofessional collaboration(IPC) on a daily basis. The Canadian Nurse Association (CNA) defines IPC as working with other health professionals to come up with ethical situations to provide care for patients. As discussed in A team process to support interprofessional care discusses, IPC is most commonly used in primary care settings such as rehabilitation centers, clinics and hospitals. ICP in the hospital setting, specifically the intensive care unit (ICU) is critical

In addition, a framework allowing health professionals to use knowledge, skills, and experience to their full scope of practice. There are a variety of methods available to achieve the best IPC possible. One way is the usage care pathways. Care pathways are defined as “multidisciplinary tools that can be used to introduced the best clinical practice, to ensure that the most appropriate management occurs at the most appropriate time, and that is provided by the most important health professional,” (cite). The overall goal of care pathways is to improve the quality of patient care. They also aim to promote teamwork and leadership between health care professionals. (Cite). Examples of where care pathways can be effective consist of interprofessional documentation, communication, relations, etc.

This framework includes six competency domains that are essential for collaboration, they include: interprofessional communication; client-centered care; team functioning; collaborative leadership; and interprofessional conflict resolution (site). These domains describe knowledge, skills and attitude on what it needed to work together. These competencies are learned by each profession since there is no level of skill or practice required to utilize each competency in new experiences (cite). In RNAO’s Developing and Sustaining Interprofessional Health Care, expanded on these domains and identifies the importance of the group process in interprofessional care. This guideline also talks about how empathy is an important part of developing relationships with team members. Common themes were found when focusing on the development of empathetic teams including; engaging in conscious interaction; using dialogic communication; understanding each other roles; appreciating personality difference; taking perspective; and nurturing the collective spirt. These themes contribute to the overall outcome of interprofessional