Evaluating Interdisciplinary Collaboration Skills

In order to develop the most effective processes to ensure that primary health care is successful, interdisciplinary collaboration is essential (Petri, 2010). The term interdisciplinary collaboration refers to an interpersonal goal that is unobtainable when professionals act individually (Hickey & Brosnan, 2017). In the healthcare setting, “interprofessional work involving various health and social care professionals who come together regularly to solve problems or provide services” is known as interprofessional collaboration (Hickey & Brosnan, 2017, p. 231).

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Hickey and Brosnan (2017) list the following benefits to interprofessional collaboration:

To resolve real-world problems
To resolve complex problems
To provide different perspectives about a problem
To create a comprehensive prospective theory-based hypothesis for research
To develop consensus around clinical definitions and guidelines for complex diseases and conditions
To provide comprehensive services such as health care and health educations (p. 233)

For interdisciplinary collaboration to be effective, each member of the team must share the same vision, goals, and objectives (Petri, 2010). This shared vision, the ability for groups to work together, and lack of interprofessional education could prove to be barriers to interdisciplinary collaboration (Petri, 2010). Having just started in a new unit as a nurse manager, getting to know the team members of each discipline and learning the details of the vision and current quality improvement initiatives is an area of growth for this particular writer.

The findings of a study by Braithwaite et al. (2012) highlighted the barriers that organizations run into when attempting to create a change across an entire organization. In conclusion, while there are always areas for growth, when implemented, interdisciplinary collaboration can improve relatability, interaction, and communication amongst healthcare workers (Braithwaite et al., 2012). This results in increased quality of care and patient safety (Braithwaite et al., 2012).

References

Braithwaite, J., Westbrook, M., Nugus, P., Greenfield, D., Travaglia, J., Runciman, W., & Westbrook, J. (2012). A four year, systems-wide intervention promoting interprofessional

collaboration. BMC Health Services Research, 12(1), 99-106. Retrieved from Walden University Library Databases

Hickey, J. V., & Brosnan, C. A. (2017). Evaluation of health care quality for DNPs (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company.

Petri, L. (2010). Concept analysis of interdisciplinary collaboration. Nursing Forum, 45(2), 73-82. Retrieved from Walden University Library Databas

APA, 2 references