Interprofessional Collaboration in Practice

SECTION 1 In this section, I shall discuss what I have learnt from the online group working that we did. For this module, we were split into groups and worked in teams, using an online forum as a discussion and exchange board, which raised some issues about being able to properly collaborate with equality, as originally it was planned we would meet in person. We were students from different disciplines; nursing and allied health professions, and by coming together to build on our knowledge of interprofessional collaboration, we were engaging in what Vanclay (1998) called ‘interprofessional education’; namely learning from, with and about each other as professionals. We introduced ourselves to each other through our online group, and gave a brief outline of our professional roles. On reflection, in future I would choose to spend more time on introducing ourselves to each other, and would consider using some pairing off activities to go into more depth about our roles with each other. I feel it would have helped us become familiar with each other before starting to work together, which could have broken down barriers to our communicating together. Douglas (2009 pg 68) illustrates this point by saying that, “One major factor in successful partnerships is the degree of ease felt by professionals who work alongside each other.” As individuals, we were required to produce 6 sentences (2 each on 3 themes); (i) communication issues between health and social care professionals, (ii) contrasting professional perspectives/ values within teams and (iii) stereotyping, power imbalances and team processes. As a group, we had to pick the best 6 of those. Because we had no leader or co-ordinator, once we had all submitted our sentences to the forum, we recognised that the fairest way to choose the final sentences would be by voting. Hornby and Atkins (2006) emphasize that, unless an individual is leading the team, the viewpoints of all of the members of the group are

References: Drinka T.J & Clark P.G (2000) Health care teamwork: Interdisciplinary practice and teaching Connecticut, Greenwood Publishing Group Hornby S Vanclay L. (1998) Developing Collaboration: Interprofessional Education, British Journal of Therapy and Rehabilitation [online] 5(1) Page 6 available from www.ebscohost.com/cinahl/ [Accessed 1st July 2009] Willumson E Martin V. & Rogers A. (2004) Leading Interprofessional Teams in Health and Social Care, Oxford Routledge Douglas A Hastings M. & Squires A (2002) Teamworking in Rehabilitation, Rehabilitation of the Older Person (3rd Ed) Cheltenham, Nelson Thornes, Page 106 Engel C Smith P. (2005) Collaborating to Compete: Achieving Effective Knowledge Sharing in Organisations, The Learning Organisation 12(6) Page 563 Loxley A Stapleton S. (1998) Team Building: Making collaborative practice work, Journal of Nursing and Midwifery 43(1) Page 12&15 Traynor M Hudson B. (2006) Integrated team working: You can get it if you really want it, Journal of Integrated Care 14(1) Page 13-22 Gottlieb L