What's Gonna Work?? ---> Teamwork

 “ Act as a Leader, not a Manager,

Stop Managing, Start Leading !”

In a Health Care environment a patient may encounter dozens of professionals, from a whole range of varied disciplines, in a short space of time. In theory they should all combine together to provide the best outcome but all too often confusions and problems arise.

What is Interprofessional Health?The IHC uses the terms interdisciplinary and interprofessionalinterchangeably. Most current professional education involves students, all from the same discipline or profession, mastering a specific body of knowledge, types of skills and modes of conduct.

Multiprofessional education occurs when students from the health-related occupations with different educational backgrounds are brought together to understand a particular problem or experience.

Interprofessional education occurs when students from various professions learn from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care. Their interactions are characterized by integration and modification reflecting participants understanding of the core principles and concepts of each contributing discipline and familiarity with the basic language and mindsets of the various disciplines (Clark, P.G. (1993), Journal of Interprofessional Care, 7(3), p. 219-220.

Barrett et al (2005) suggest the prefix ‘multi' tends to imply the involvement of personnel from different professions, disciplines or agencies, whilst the prefix ‘inter' tends to imply collaboration, particularly in areas such as decision making.


Rationale for Interprofessional Health Care Teams

I. Interprofessional health care team work can facilitate:

1. More effective and efficient patient care, patients benefit from receiving care from the health care health professional with the expertise specific to the patient's individual problem, team work can provide coordination which can prevent any aspect of the patient's care from being overlooked or shortchanged
2. Professional growth and job satisfaction, which results from doing the work you have studied and trained for
3. Understanding of how the health professions can work together to enhance health promotion, public health, prevention, interdisciplinary research, community based participatory research and many other health related but not specifically patient care oriented activities
4. Economy in health care costs, e.g., eliminating duplication, and delays in care provision
5. Enhanced breadth of knowledge and appreciation for the skills and knowledge of other health professionals, above and beyond roles in team work

II. Interprofessional initiatives can benefit:

1. Health sciences students
2. Health sciences educators
3. Health care practitioners and clinicians working in teams
4. Patients and families

III. Positive attitudes about health care team work can be promoted and enhanced by increased knowledge and skill in professional communication and cultural effectiveness.

This short video introduces a programme thats used to train all health and social care professionals in the University of Leicesters local region. The focus of this programme is on helping trainees to work alongside one another in multidisciplinary teams its not enough simply to know what each type of specialist does, they need to be able to work together in allsorts of combinations and in allsorts of environments and situations.

Teamwork

How we want to collaborate with each other? even within the same profession also sometimes there is also a problem. How we want to put away the EGO especially when we think that we are higher than the others. Doctors feel challenged when nurses correct them. Actually it is not about what degree you have, or about you CGPA, it is all about manner, politeness, and experience that make you knowledgable, make you become respected. 

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.

A few studies suggest that interprofessional educational experiences can enhance participants’ understanding of teamwork, although participants have mostly been professionals already working in the clinical setting. For example, Nash & Hoy (1993) reported that GPS and nurses believed that a three-day residential workshop on the interprofessional delivery of terminal care had enhanced their capacity to work collaboratively. A study of final year students of occupational therapy, physiotherapy and other allied health professions found that two-day interprofessional workshops had a positive influence on participants’ understanding of teamwork (Parsell et al, 1998).

Refferences :
1. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16096155
2. http://interprofessionalhealth.wisc.edu/whatis.cfm