Jennifer Tomasik
Vice President and Principal
Interprofessional collaboration between and among physicians, nurses, pharmacists, social workers, and other clinical and administrative professionals continues to play an increasingly important role in the future of health care delivery.
When we initiated a study to identify practices to advance effective interprofessional collaboration, we started by defining it in a particular way:
Effective interprofessional collaboration promotes the active participation of each discipline in patient care, where all disciplines are working together and fully engaging patients and those who support them, and leadership on the team adapts based on patient needs.
Our study found that effective interprofessional collaboration enhances patient and family-centered goals and values, provides mechanisms for continuous communication among caregivers, and optimizes participation in clinical decision-making within and across disciplines. It fosters respect for the disciplinary contributions of all professionals.
Looking back almost ten years since we engaged in this effort, we thought now would be a good time to share the summary report we authored, published by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in 2014. The report summarizes the project findings where we set to understand these three main things:
- What are the interprofessional practices in play?
- What are the supports that make interprofessional collaboration possible?
- What is the difference that this work makes for patients and families?
It is packed with case examples and ideas about practices that healthcare organizations can put into place to advance their own efforts to improve interprofessional collaboration and reap the benefits associated with it.
Read the full report here.