Photo courtesty of Penn Medicine.
We hear a lot about interprofessional collaboration, the potentially dynamic and enlightening process of sharing knowledge across disciplines to improve patient care, but what’s being done to make this a reality?
The promotion of interprofessional collaboration is one focus of an ongoing national initiative by the Future of Nursing: Campaign for Action, as described in “Interprofessional Collaboration and Education,” an article in the March issue of AJN.
To close the gap between policy bullet points and the reality of daily work for nurses is neither impossible nor inevitable; it depends on smaller coalitions and the engagement of multiple organizations—but also, one imagines, a willingness to engage in inquiry and to try new and imperfect processes at the local level that may need refinement over time. The article is free, but here are a couple of paragraphs that give an a good overview of why it matters and where we are:
Interprofessional collaboration is based on the premise that when providers and patients communicate and consider each other’s unique perspective, they can better address the multiple factors that influence the health of individuals, families, and communities. No one provider can do all of this alone.
However, shifting the culture of health care away from the “silo” system, in which clinicians operate independently of one another, and toward collaboration has been attempted before without enduring success. For nearly five decades a commitment to interprofessional learning has waxed and waned in health professions training programs. During this time, health care leaders have shown intermittent interest in interprofessional collaboration in the delivery of health care. Strong and convincing outcome data demonstrating the value of team-based care have been lacking, but changes in our health care system now require that we explore how we can make interprofessional collaboration the norm instead of the exception.
For a more detailed exploration of why interprofessional collaboration matters to the quality of patient care as well as specific recommendations about making it more of a reality, read the article itself.—Jacob Molyneux, senior editor
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