A reflection on collaborative practice interprofessional

While early interprofessional teamwork is of uncertain benefit to patients, it has value for changing attitudes towards interprofessionalism and for developing skills and traits relevant for healthcare students. Exploring and evaluating changes in these skills and attitudes is under-researched, especially in early healthcare education.

N LonCertEd, M. To meet this challenge, we piloted and developed a reflective exercise derived from methods used in personal construct psychology Hargreaves, ; Salmon,which has proved to be useful in three overlapping areas; research, professional development, and classroom teaching.

To illustrate the technique, this paper presents a case study of one district nurse who used the method to help her examine complex interprofessional relationships when providing long-term community care.

By employing the visual displays the district nurse was able to explore the meanings of professional identity and roles in terms of professional relationships, and to consider her intentions and actions within a complex multidisciplinary situation.

The Online Journal of Issues in Nursing. Notably at practice level, joint working between community nurses and social care services appears to create situations where professional identities and traditional roles are no longer prescribed but are actively worked out and negotiated between those who are involved in the care of a client Fournier, ; Gelman et al.

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Depending on the demands of the situation this may mean in practice that some practitioners have to modify their roles and redefine what it means to them to be a nurse or a social worker.

Such situations may create difficulties between some practitioners in terms of conflict over roles and professional boundaries Biggs, Earlier studies and findings from our own research Higgins et al. For instance, many community nurses do not work the same hours or on the same site as social care staff; and therefore, much of the contact and negotiation is made through telephones or messages left on answer machines King et al.

Teaching methods need to encourage students to share their own viewpoints with others, as well as recognise and accept the value of other professionals' approaches to client care.

One way to promote working relationships between practitioners is through integrated learning programmes at different stages of training, from undergraduate education to post-qualification courses.

At present many centres in the UK are developing and piloting programmes to cultivate a multi-professional approach to working Barr, ; Whittington, However, providing multi-professional practice placements is complex and difficult to set up. Also, traditional classroom learning is known to be limited and does not readily reflect the complexities that may arise through interprofessional working Stuart, Therefore, the challenge for educationalists and teachers is to provide situations where student practitioners from different professions do more than sit side by side in the classroom.

Beyond the classroom, professional development programmes need to provide learning tools that will help practitioners to reflect upon their interprofessional relationships. This should enhance collaborative working and encourage innovative thinking about new ways of providing care that are not restricted by traditional professional and service boundaries.

In this article we introduce a technique that seeks to encourage and enable health and social care practitioners to reflect upon interprofessional relationships and practice. We will describe a case illustrating the technique, and conclude by discussing its potential use in research, teaching, and professional development.

The Challenge So how can we encourage students and practitioners to reflect upon their working relationships and share their different perspectives of care?

What seemed obvious to them when they were actually in their practice setting was difficult for them to describe when they were in a classroom setting. We act in the context of particular circumstances and our past experiences Generally, one of the obstacles to overcome is the difficulty in articulating how one feels or and interacts with others.

Phenomenology provides a theoretical account of this experience. Merleau Ponty asserts that much of our involvement with our social world is "pre-reflective.

Thus interactions amongst health and social care professionals may become set in patterns that are rarely subject to critical consideration. It may only be when practitioners are experiencing significant difficulties with other professionals that they will reflect and consider how relationships and communication may be improved.

A Solution In finding a solution to this challenge we wanted something that would actively engage students as well as something that would enable them to describe what it meant to be a particular kind of practitioner. We drew upon constructivist phenomenological interview methods used in personal construct psychology Hargreaves, ; Salmon, We adapted these interview techniques and designed an exercise that would enable students and practitioners to reflect on and describe their experience of an everyday joint collaborative working event, as well as to consider ways to improve their working relationships.

The technique may be used in research, teaching, and professional development relating to interprofessional working. Briefly, there are two phases to this exercise.

What is interprofessional collaboration and practice?

The participant is asked to reflect upon a work-related scenario of his or her own choice. For instance this may be a current joint working situation involving the long-term care of a patient in the community, or a recent team project that involved other practitioners.

Then the person is asked to write the names initials or job titles of those involved, including their own name, in their chosen scenario upon arrow-shaped cards. They then place these upon a large sheet of paper in whatever pattern they feel describes their working relationships.

Although care is taken not to lead the participants, it may sometimes be necessary to provide further clarification of the task.PRIME is an ACCME accredited provider of continuing medical education for Physicians, Physician Assistants, Pharmacists, Nurse Practitioners, Psychologists, Nurses and Case Managers.

Oct 21,  · This is an original post as submitted by: Taylor Solak, BS, RN, CCRN. According to WHO () Interprofessional education is integral to developing a “collaborative practice-ready” health workforce that is best prepared to address patient care needs.

Reflection on Interprofessional Learning - Marked by The Teams in INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE module was a great learning experience for me due to the different modules that I have to Study during the course of the diagnostic regardbouddhiste.com this module, I got to work with different professional health care students.

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Reflections on Interprofessional Education – Upstate Medical University IPE Forum

5 What is this portfolio for? This Portfolio has two purposes: i) For Learning: This Portfolio will act as a tool for recording your learning of professional and interprofessional practice.

ii) For Assessment: This Portfolio is designed to contain your reflective writing on .