Journal of Interprofessional Care 

About: Journal of Interprofessional Care is an academic journal published by Informa. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Interprofessional education & Health care. It has an ISSN identifier of 1356-1820. Over the lifetime, 2586 publications have been published receiving 69741 citations.

Interprofessional teamwork: Professional cultures as barriers

Abstract: Each health care profession has a different culture which includes values, beliefs, attitudes, customs and behaviours. Professional cultures evolved as the different professions developed, reflecting historic factors, as well as social class and gender issues. Educational experiences and the socialization process that occur during the training of each health professional reinforce the common values, problem-solving approaches and language/jargon of each profession. Increasing specialization has lead to even further immersion of the learners into the knowledge and culture of their own professional group. These professional cultures contribute to the challenges of effective interprofessional teamwork. Insight into the educational, systemic and personal factors which contribute to the culture of the professions can help guide the development of innovative educational methodologies to improve interprofessional collaborative practice.

The conceptual basis for interprofessional collaboration: Core concepts and theoretical frameworks

Abstract: Interprofessional collaboration is a key factor in initiatives designed to increase the effectiveness of health services currently offered to the public. It is important that the concept of collaboration be well understood, because although the increasingly complex health problems faced by health professionals are creating more interdependencies among them, we still have limited knowledge of the complexity of interprofessional relationships. The goal of this literature review was to identify conceptual frameworks that could improve our understanding of this important aspect of health organizations. To this end, we have identified and taken into consideration: (A) the various definitions proposed in the literature and the various concepts associated with collaboration, and (B) the various theoretical frameworks of collaboration. Our results demonstrate that: (1) the concept of collaboration is commonly defined through five underlying concepts: sharing, partnership, power, interdependency and process; (2) the most complete models of collaboration seem to be those based on a strong theoretical background, either in organizational theory or in organizational sociology and on empirical data; (3) there is a significant amount of diversity in the way the various authors conceptualized collaboration and in the factors influencing collaboration; (4) these frameworks do not establish clear links between the elements in the models and the outputs; and (5) the literature does not provide a serious attempt to determine how patients could be integrated into the health care team, despite the fact that patients are recognized as the ultimate justification for providing collaborative care.

Interprofessionality as the field of interprofessional practice and interprofessional education: An emerging concept

Abstract: This paper proposes a new concept and a frame of reference that should permit the development of a better understanding of a phenomenon that is the development of a cohesive and integrated health care practice among professionals in response to clients' needs. The concept is named "interprofessionality" and aims to draw a clear distinction with another concept, that of interdisciplinarity. The utilization of the concept of interdisciplinarity, which originally concerns the development of integrated knowledge in response to fragmented disciplinary knowledge, has caused some confusion. We need a concept that will specifically concern the development of a cohesive practice among different professionals from the same organization or from different organizations and the factors influencing it. There is no concept that focuses clearly on this field. Interprofessionality concerns the processes and determinants that influence interprofessional education initiatives as well as determinants and processes inherent to interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessionality also involves analysis of the linkages between these two spheres of activity. An attempt to bridge the gap between interprofessional education and interprofessional practice is long overdue; the two fields of inquiry need a common basis for analysis. To this end, we propose a frame of reference, an interprofessional education for collaborative patient-centred practice framework. The framework establishes linkages between the determinants and processes of collaboration at several levels, including links among learners, teachers and professionals (micro level), links at the organizational level between teaching and health organizations (meso level) and links among systems such as political, socio-economic and cultural systems (macro level). Research must play a key role in the development of interprofessionality in order to document these linkages and the results of initiatives as they are proposed and implemented. We also believe that interprofessionality will not be pursued without the requisite political will.

The determinants of successful collaboration: a review of theoretical and empirical studies.

Abstract: Successful collaboration in health care teams can be attributed to numerous elements, including processes at work in interpersonal relationships within the team (the interactional determinants), conditions within the organization (the organizational determinants), and the organization's environment (the systemic determinants). Through a review of the literature, this article presents a tabulated compilation of each of these determinant types as identified by empirical research and identifies the main characteristics of these determinants according to the conceptual work. We then present a "showcase" of recent Canadian policy initiatives--The Canadian Health Transition Fund (HTF)--to illustrate how the various categories of determinants can be mobilized. The literature review reveals that very little of the empirical work has dealt with determinants of interprofessional collaboration in health, particularly its organizational and systemic determinants. Furthermore, our overview of experience at the Canadian HTF suggests that a systemic approach should be adopted in evaluative research on the determinants of effective collaborative practice.

Working together for health.

Abstract: There is a crisis in human resources for health care, with a chronic and global shortage of well-trained health workers, most acutely felt in those countries where they are most needed, says Dr Lee Jong-Wook, the World Health Organization (WHO) Secretary General, in his foreword to the 2006 World Health Report (WHO, 2006). People, he says, are the vital ingredient in strengthening health care systems, but the solution is not straightforward; nor is there a consensus about how to proceed. Health care workers around the world, says the report, are experiencing increasing stress and insecurity, exacerbated by concentrations of population in urban areas and migration from the poorest to the richest countries, compounded where the skills of limited yet expensive professionals are ill-matched to the profile of local health care needs. That crisis has the potential to deepen in coming years as demand for services escalates in countries facing lower fertility and ageing populations. It has been recognized for some time that the shift from acute tertiary hospital care to patient-centred, home-based and team-driven care will require new skills and collaboration between workers and with patients. In particular a team approach is required to respond to the needs of individuals with chronic conditions and to address challenges in public health. Therefore health care employers and managers need to pay attention to building teams if they are to meet the challenges and targets of the future. Care for patients with chronic conditions must be organized and coordinated over time among providers and across settings, sharing power with patients and working with community groups. Outcomes will then improve, asserts the WHO in a related report (WHO, 2005). It argues that health care providers must work interdependently, demonstrating mutual respect, trust, support and appreciation of each discipline’s unique contribution. They must reconcile abstract notions of ‘‘public health’’ while responding to patients’ pressing needs and concerns. The report enunciates core competencies required for working with patients with chronic conditions: patient-centred care; partnering; quality improvement; information and communication technology; and a public health perspective. To dismiss these reports as merely re-treading familiar ground would be to miss their point. The force of their argument lies in the broad consensus of informed opinion that they represent, endorsed by the evidence that they muster. The case for concerted action is compelling and the challenge for readers of this Journal plain: to demonstrate how interprofessional education and practice development can and does help to deliver the required outcomes, as another WHO report argued so persuasively almost 20 years ago (WHO, 1988). We have learned much during the intervening years about means to ends in interprofessional education, which may well help to realize the WHO goals. But our credibility, and our capacity to respond to the needs where they are greatest, depends crucially upon our readiness, coming as we do overwhelmingly from developed countries, Journal of Interprofessional Care, January 2007; 21(1): 1 – 2