Collaboration is the cornerstone for the success of any professional team. Interprofessional collaboration can be described as one of the trademarks that leads to one of the most successful innovations in healthcare. When nursing teams collaborate with other health care providers, the outcomes of the patients will improve and the overall quality of care improves. Collaboration will also lead to an improvement in the communication and coordination between various healthcare professionals and lead to an overall improvement in safety. While collaboration is beneficial, it can be difficult to achieve. There are certain barriers to collaboration that could lead to dysfunctional healthcare teams. It is important to address these barriers through evidence-based practice in order to improve the quality of care. This paper analyzes collaboration in health care by looking at its benefits, its characteristics and concepts, barriers to effective collaboration, and evidence-based strategies to overcome those barriers.
True Collaboration in Health Care
Collaboration in health care has been defined as a process where health care professionals engage in complementary roles where they work together, share responsibility when taking part in decision-making and problem solving, and carry out plans for patient care (Hughes, 2008). Collaboration in health care takes place between nurses, physicians, or any other member of the health care team. True collaboration in health care will involve all those members working with each other as they share and improve their knowledge. This should lead to an improvement in decision-making and the overall quality of care accorded to patients.
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The concept of collaboration has been commonly defined through five major concepts that include sharing, partnership, power, interdependence, and process (Green & Johnson, 2015). The idea of sharing implies that there is a collective action and information transfer from one individual to another. The passing of information should be done for the goal of improving quality of care and safety of the patients. The notion of partnership among the health care team means that there is mutual trust, honest communication, the pursuit of common goals and interests. It implies that individuals from diverse backgrounds can work together in the provision of nursing care and services. Partnership carried out should be especially done between the nurses and physicians who are directly in contact with the patients.
Benefits of Effective Collaboration and Teamwork
Collaboration among various teams in healthcare can lead to significant advantages for the patients. Some of the advantages include comprehensive patient care, minimization of readmission rates, and promotion of patient-centered care. One of the benefits of collaboration is that it will lead to comprehensive patient care. The different parts of the health care team can be considered to be working on patient care just like solving a part of the puzzle. All the parts of the puzzle should be able to work together in order to understand patient needs. Better outcomes of the patients will lead to a minimization of readmission rates for patients. It can reduce misdiagnosis and ensure that patients are treated correctly for the first time. The ultimate goal of the medical and healthcare professional is to provide patients with the best form of care possible (Bosch & Mansell, 2015). Collaboration ensures that there is an improved quality of care and patient safety for the benefit of the patient.
Collaboration can lead to significant advantages for the organization by building strong communication in various levels of the organization. Collaboration will involve various teams interacting on a personal level and sharing ideas about patient treatment in order to improve and maintain the continuity of care. A better and stronger communication structure in the health care team will lead to satisfaction and retention in the team. Members of the staff will feel more recognized as they participate in the decision-making process. Additionally, a higher collaborative environment will drive the process of innovation, performance, and initiative throughout the entire organization. The consequence of not having effective collaboration is that it will lead to work dissatisfaction and undue stress among the entire staff.
Collaboration is important for team members since it empowers different teams and promotes a team mentality throughout the entire organization. Empowering team members will involve other members of the patient medical team such as social workers, radiologists, nurses, or members from other professionals being empowered to make better recommendations about the patients. It would promote team mentality by ensuring that team members can support each other. The health care profession can be especially challenging and team mentality will promote endurance among various care providers. The consequence of not having collaboration is that it will lead to the disintegration of the entire team. Various individuals will work independently and this will lead to several challenges and difficulties among the patient care providers.
Characteristics and Concepts Required for Effective Interdisciplinary Collaboration
For effective collaboration to take place, there is a variety of steps that should be followed by different health care teams. The first step is that the different teams should be able to interact towards achieving a common goal. The common goal to be realized for any health care team is an improvement in the quality of care and patient safety. Collaboration will also involve social inputs where the different teams have time to interact both socially and professionally. The next step is that different members of the health care team should understand that collaboration is an active and ongoing process (Morley & Cashell, 2017).
Other common themes that have been identified for effective collaboration include coordination, cooperation, shared decision-making, and partnerships (Morley & Cashell, 2017). Coordination will involve working together in the health care team to realize common goals. Cooperation entails having the contribution of each team, understanding it and valuing the contribution of other team members. Shared decision-making making involves carrying out negotiations in a way that builds trust, is open, and shows a respectable power-balance sharing process.
Barriers to Effective Interdisciplinary Collaboration
There are several barriers that can prevent effective interdisciplinary collaboration. According to Steihaug et al. (2016), collaboration throughout the organization can be hampered by different factors which include organizational factors, barriers at the team level, and individual factors. Organizational factors are caused by an organizational culture that is created throughout the organization for some time. The organization could have inadequate research on the need for collaboration. It could have hierarchical, administrative, and educational structures that make it difficult for different members of the health care team to work together. All these factors hamper the general ability of different teams to work together.
Team factors can create significant barriers and lead to the disintegration of collaboration for the entire health care team. Team factors are caused by an inadequacy in the leadership and functioning of various individual teams. The teams could be extremely large, have poor leadership or authority, have a lack of commitment among members, have poor decision-making and communication skills, and have several conflicts. Individual factors can also act as barriers to the success of the team. Individual factors could include differences in gender, race or class. Individual attributes such as competitive nature, defensive nature, and reluctance to accept suggestions from other team members. All these barriers are caused by a poor understanding of the need for collaboration or its benefits.
Evidence-Based Strategies to Overcome Barriers to Effective Collaboration
Various evidence-based strategies have been developed to assist health care teams to avoid barriers to effective collaboration. Weller, Boyd, and Cumin (2014) identified a series of seven steps that should enable teams to overcome any barriers to effective collaboration. The seven steps include teaching effective communication strategies, training teams together, training teams using simulation, defining of inclusive teams, the creation of democratic teams, supporting teamwork through procedures and protocols, and developing an organizational culture that supports healthcare teams (Weller, Boyd, & Cumin, 2014).
Teaching communication can be achieved through the use of structured methods of communication. The lessons should emphasize on decision-making and conflict resolution. The teams can be trained to work together through the use of simulation in a safe environment. The definition of an inclusive team will involve redefining the term ‘team’ and identifying its common goals. The support of democratic strategies will be supported by putting less emphasis on hierarchies and making the team open so that everyone feels valued. There should be various procedures that ensure information sharing such as briefings, IT solutions, and checklists implemented by the different teams. The leadership and department heads of health care institution should recognize collaboration and put in place an organizational culture that supports understanding and collaboration among various teams.
In conclusion, the health care field can be especially challenging and there is a need for collaboration among the different teams. Collaboration can be defined as various teams working together for the common goal of quality of care and patient safety improvement. Collaboration can be used to realize significant advantages for the organization and team members such as a better working environment which improves workplace satisfaction. There are barriers to effective collaboration such as a poor organizational culture, dysfunctional team, and poor training among the individual on the need for collaboration. These factors can be overcome through proper training on collaboration and building an organizational culture that supports collaboration.
References
Bosch, B., & Mansell, H. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration in health care: Lessons to be learned from competitive sports. Canadian pharmacists’ journal: CPJ = Revue des pharmaciens du Canada: RPC , 148 (4), 176-9.
Green, B. N., & Johnson, C. D. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration in research, education, and clinical practice: working together for a better future. The Journal of chiropractic education , 29 (1), 1-10.
Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in health care. Journal of medical imaging and radiation sciences , 48 (2), 207-216.
Steihaug, S., Johannessen, A. K., Ådnanes, M., Paulsen, B., & Mannion, R. (2016). Challenges in Achieving Collaboration in Clinical Practice: The Case of Norwegian Health Care. International journal of integrated care , 16 (3), 3. doi:10.5334/ijic.2217
Weller, J., Boyd, M., & Cumin, D. (2014). Teams, tribes and patient safety: overcoming barriers to effective teamwork in healthcare. Postgraduate medical journal , 90 (1061), 149-154.
