The present day healthcare system is highly fragmented; it is made up of different teams of health professions who have different education and training levels and plays specific roles in healthcare delivery process (Lancaster et al., 2015). The teams include nurses, physicians, technicians, anesthesiologists, surgeons and unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPs). Patients also have a broad range of health problems that needs to be addressed. As such, care for such patients cannot be entirely provided by one care provider. Typically, a hospitalized patient interact with several health care providers at the course of his/her stay at the hospital. Therefore, it is important to promote collaboration and effective communications among various teams to improve patient care, reduce medical errors and create a satisfactory working environment (Lancaster et al., 2015). This paper will address collaboration, communication and team building issues in healthcare. The focus shall be on significance, characteristics and barriers to collaboration.
Definition of collaboration and its significance in healthcare
Collaboration broadly refers to interactions involving two or more people who work together to achieve a common pre-determined goal. In healthcare, collaboration is defined as a complex process that requires voluntary sharing of knowledge by different healthcare professions and a joint responsibility in patient care whose primary objective is to provide best quality care to patients (Williams, Parker & Turner, 2010). It means care providers are working together and undertake complementary roles. In other words, collaboration involves healthcare professions sharing responsibilities in patient care which include planning and decision making (Nursing Together, 2011). There are several advantages associated with collaboration in today’s healthcare environment. One is that it increases the awareness of the team member’s knowledge and skills which is an important aspect in decision making. Secondly, according to Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2010), interdisciplinary collaboration improves safety and quality of care. Thirdly, collaboration enhances the efficiency and coordination of care; this significantly reduces burnout among healthcare professionals and increases their morale (Wood, 2012). Moreover, various studies show that cooperation among care providers reduces incidences of medical errors.
The term collective competence refers to the total of capabilities of care professions working together in a team. It is usually assumed that professional competency is an individual trait (Hanson & Carter, 2015). It also assumed that when the different health practitioners are brought together as a team, then their personal competence transforms to the collective competence of the whole team. This belief of hypothesis on collective competence is widely used in healthcare; however, this might not be necessarily true because the same individuals frequently retain their individualistic perspectives even when working as a team. We can, therefore, say that collective competence refers to a sense of awareness of people in a team on the factors that affect their functions. The current healthcare education focuses on fostering collective competence by encouraging teamwork. The students are organized into groups that work together and get graded as a team. On the other hand, the concept of collective competence is related to the present day care in that healthcare providers are encouraged to collaborate and provide care that is effective.
Characteristics of collaboration
Several features characterize efficient and fruitful collaboration; one is clinical and interpersonal competence. This means that one has to learn effectively to work within an interdisciplinary team and should carry out their roles per standards of practice and level of competence, for example, their codes of ethics. Secondly is a common purpose, those working together in a team should have a shared goal in which they strive to achieve; all members of the team should support activities that are designed to meet their targets (Derry et al., 2014). The third characteristic is trust and mutual respect. The team members should trust one another so as to avoid the adverse impacts of mistrust on their collaboration. Moreover, each of the team members should maintain high levels of respect so that each member can offer their perspectives and opinions without offending other members. Value for diversity is another important feature in collaboration. It is important to know that team members have different ideologies which may a times conflict with those of other team members. In such a scenario, attributes and attitudes of members should be acknowledged and respected.
Based on the informal self-assessment on collaborative strengths, I rate myself at 8. My collaborative attributes support the rating. I am fully competent in clinical and interpersonal skills. Furthermore, I always have respect and value opinions of other healthcare professionals. Therefore, I can work in a team collaboratively to promote quality patient care. However, to increase my rating to 10 which demonstrates excellence, I will have to improve on some aspects that foster collaboration. Based on the Core Competencies of Inter-profession Collaborative Practice, I commit to respecting unique cultures, beliefs, values and responsibilities of other health care professionals in the team (Panel, 2011). I also commit to developing my professional and inter-professional knowledge continuously so that I can improve the performance of my team.
Barriers to collaboration
The barriers to an effective collaboration between healthcare providers include: some members of the care team may resist relinquishing some of their responsibilities to other health professionals who have different levels and kind of education. Moreover, the lack of clear understanding of roles of each of the team members is another barrier. Other obstacles are legal and liability issues on the scope of practice, lack of trust in the collaborative process, lack of resources such as time and financial to train care providers on the importance of collaboration, poor management support and lack of effective leadership to guide the teams in collaboration (Williams, Parker & Turner, 2010).
An example of a barrier to collaboration that I have encountered is in my practice was the lack of commitment by the team members (Bruner, Davey & Waite, 2011). The team members were not supportive and willing to take up some responsibilities of other members of the team. The barrier was addressed by encouraging the team members to develop a commitment towards achieving the goal of collaboration. If I had to address the barrier again, what I would do differently is to educate members on the need of sharing responsibilities so that patients can get quality patient-centered care.
A personal experience on how inter-professional collaboration was used to improve patient care was in the care of a cancer patient. A team of nurses, physicians, physiotherapists and anesthetists coordinated the care to the patient across the continuum. The team effectiveness was strong; this was promoted by the commitment and high-functioning of the care team (Bruner, Davey & Waite, 2011). What I would have done differently to further the teambuilding in the care of the patient is to add psychologists to the team to help the patient deal with mental health issues such as stress.
Conclusively, collaboration among health care providers is critical in addressing varying health problems of patients. It improves the quality of patient care, enhances satisfaction and reduces costs. For collaboration to be effective, healthcare professionals should embrace communication and promote teamwork.
References
Bruner, P., Davey, M. P., & Waite, R. (2011). Culturally sensitive collaborative care models: Exploration of a community-based health center. Families, Systems, & Health, 29(3), 155.
Derry, S. J., Schunn, C. D., & Gernsbacher, M. A. (Eds.). (2014).Interdisciplinary collaboration: An emerging cognitive science. Psychology Press.
Hanson, C. M., & Carter, M. (2015). Collaboration. In Hamric, Hanson, Tracey, and O'Grady (Eds), Advanced practice nursing: An integrative approach (pp. 299-327).
Lancaster, G., Kolakowsky‐Hayner, S., Kovacich, J., & Greer‐Williams, N. (2015). Interdisciplinary communication and collaboration among physicians, nurses, and unlicensed assistive personnel. Journal of Nursing Scholarship,47(3), 275-284.
Nursing Together. (2011). Collaborative Nursing Practice. Retrieved from http://www.nursetogether.com/collaborative-nursing-practice
Panel, I. E. C. E. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel.
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. (2010). Interdisciplinary Collaboration Improves Safety, Quality of Care, Experts Say - Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. Retrieved from http://www.rwjf.org/en/library/articles-and-news/2010/11/interdisciplinary-collaboration-improves-safety-quality-of-care-.html
Williams, H. M., Parker, S. K., & Turner, N. (2010). Proactively performing teams: The role of work design, transformational leadership, and team composition. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 83(2), 301-324.
Wood, D. (2012). Collaborative Healthcare Teams a Growing Success Story. Retrieved from http://www.amnhealthcare.com/latest-healthcare-news/collaborative-healthcare-teams-growing-success-story/
