Interprofessional Communication and Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) among Health Care Professionals

Abstract

Communication is inseparably knotted in health care groups. However, not all group communications are effective. The main objective of this paper is to examine the relationship between interprofessional communication and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) through a review of literature. It highlights the importance of IPC and focuses on how crucial interprofessional communication is among professionals to achieve positive IPC. A literature review of health care management, interprofessional care and health sciences related to interprofessional communication and IPC practice among health care professionals are performed. The electronic database for the Health Sciences and Health Administration (MEDLINE) was searched. The selection criteria of this paper include studies that examine the effectiveness of interprofessional communication towards IPC among health care professionals. Health care professionals include nurses, physicians, and a variety of clinical specialists. The review of nearly 200 manuscripts identified that only 24 are applicable for this review. Among all, only one evaluates managers as respondents, others, focus on physicians, therapists, surgeons, graduate students, oncologists, and so on. The key finding suggested that all selected literature provide conclusive findings on the relationship between interprofessional communication and IPC. Physicians and medical graduates appeared to have less attitude towards interprofessional communication and IPC. On top of that, none of the literature evaluates non-verbal aspects of communication in the study. Future research is needed to close the research gaps identified in this review.

Keywords: Interprofessional communicationInterprofessional collaboration (IPC)health care professionals

Introduction

Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) is defined as "multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care" (World Health Organization (WHO), 2010). Recently, it is a vital concern among hospital leaders in order to improve the quality of patient care while at the same time reducing the health care costs (Samadi-niya, 2014). This hospital relationship imposed a great effect on the quality of patient care and known as a critical determinant of the success of health care organizations. This is because, it is one of the best strategies to be implemented and practiced when working towards improving health care outcomes (Chan & Wood, 2010). However, only little efforts made by management to support and enrich the development of the relationship (Chesluk, et al., 2015). A growing number of evidence indicated numerous determinants of IPC and one of them is interprofessional communication. It is viewed by Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel (2011) as a crucial element in order to improve IPC among professionals (MacNulty & Kennedy, 2008; Woods, Jackson, Ziglar, & Alston, 2011) because it is central to a quality patient care (Chesluk, et al., 2015). While no specific definition for interprofessional communication, most of the literature referred it as a situation when professionals and the community communicate together in an open, collaborative and responsive manner (O'Daniel & Rosenstein, 2008). This human factor based competency could be an essential solution to the increasing number of medical errors happen recently (Safran, Miller, & Beckman, 2006).

Problem Statement

Despite professionals are aware of the importance of communicating in a team, the process becomes increasingly difficult due to different professional features (MacNulty & Kennedy, 2008). Physicians are more autonomous, solution oriented, professional identification and patient advocate while hospital administrators more towards working collaboratively, planning, organizational identification and organization advocate. The differences have caused both professions at communication risk that may affect the quality of the patient's health. Therefore, this paper aims to review the relationship between the two elements in the effort to determine the significant hidden obstacles in the relationship.

Methodology

Published literature of the electronic database for health sciences and health administration (MEDLINE) was scanned for a detailed search. Prior researchers used the key words in this review interchangeably with few others established words. Therefore, this paper included a range of terms in the search strategy to describe the review objective and capture relevant literature. The terms searched include interprofessional collaboration, interdisciplinary collaboration, multidisciplinary collaboration, inter-professional communication, interdisciplinary communication, multidisciplinary communication, teamwork, healthcare workers, healthcare members and healthcare professionals.

The literature screening process was done primarily through literature topics and abstracts. Relevant studies that meet the predetermined inclusion criteria were retrieved. The followings are the inclusion criteria of this review paper:

• Only paper of original empirical studies were included and published between the year 2005 and 2016.

• Studies related to communication, inter-professional communication, inter-professional collaboration practice, inter-professional collaboration, multidisciplinary collaboration, interdisciplinary collaboration, and teamwork.

• Health care professionals include those working in hospital facilities and medical science students.

Besides, three exclusion criteria also determined to assist this review. They include:

• The respondents of reviewed literature are from other industries than health care.

• The abstracts are available, but did not specify the objective, methodology and findings of the studies.

• The studies done before year 2005.

• Title relevant, but abstract or full paper is not available.

Discussion

Conclusion and Limitations

Although this issue has been a focus of researchers in recent years, however, there are still knowledge gaps remained. First, this paper identified that most of the findings are based on the relationship between physicians and nurses or other clinical professionals. Only one study provided finding based on the relationship between physicians and hospital administrators or managers. The nature of the relationship between two different professionals could differ from another. This expressed the needs to conduct comprehensive studies to measure the relationship between these two professionals because their collaboration is vital to provide quality care at effective and affordable cost. Second, this review revealed numerous barriers in strengthening the collaboration that involves professionals from different backgrounds and cultures. Thus, the factors that improve professionals’ attitude toward effective inter-professional communication and IPC, such as non-verbal communication should be further explored (Matziou, Vlahioti, Perdikaris, Matziou, Megapanau & Petsios, 2014). Third, from the contextual aspect, more comprehensive research should be conducted especially in Asian countries since this literature review interest is the entire world concern. Increasing understanding of these limitation aspects may assist in close the knowledge and research gaps in the future.

Acknowledgements

This study was supported by the Research Management Institute (RMI) of Universiti Teknologi MARA, Puncak Alam under the Fundamental Research Grant Scheme (FRGS) grant.

References

1. Allensandra, T., & O'Connor , M. (1966). The platinum rule: discover the four basic business personalities and how they lead you to success. New York: Warner Books.
2. Broadbent, M., & Moxham, L. (2014). Collegiate presence: explaining homogenous but disparate nursing relatioships. Psyhiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 21(3), 226-233.
3. Chan, A. K., & Wood, V. (2010). Preparing Tomorrow's Healthcare Providers for Interprofessional Collaborative Patient-Centred Practice Today. 1(2), 22-24.
4. Chesluk, B., Bernabeo, E., Reddy, S., Lynn, L., Hess, B., Odhner, T., & Holmboe, E. (2015). How hospitals work to pull healthcare teams together. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 29(7), 933-947.
5. Delunas, L. R., & Rouse, S. (2014). Nursing and medical student attitudes about communication and collaboration before and after an interprofessional education experience. Nursing Education Perspective, 35(2), 100-105.
6. Fagin, C. M. (1992). Collaboration between nurses and physicians: no longer a choice. . Nursing Healthcare, 13(7), 354-362.
7. Farhadi, A., Nik Pey, F., Shafiee, S., Farhadi, S., & Nik Pey, A. (2014). The perceptions of nurses and physicians about their professional relationship with each other. Indian Journal of Fundamental and Applied Life Sciences, 4(3), 838-843.
8. Fuss, M. A., Bryan, Y. E., & Hitchings, K. S. (1998). Measuring critical care redesign: impact on satisfaction and quality. Nursing Admin Quart, 23(1), 1-14.
9. Gannon-Leary, P., Baines, S., & Wilson, R. (2006). Collaboration and partnership: a review and reflections on a national project to join up local services in England. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 20(6), 665-674.
10. Gittell, J. H., Fairfield, K. M., Bierbaum, B., & et, a. (2000). Impact of relational coordination on quality of care, postoperative pain and functioning and length of stay; a nine hospital study of surgical patients. Medical Care, 38(8), 807-819.
11. Grant, M. J., Donaldson, A. E., & Larsen, G. Y. (2006). The safety culture in a children's hospital. Journal of Nursing Care and Quality, 21(3), 223-229.
12. Hooper, K., Thomas, Y., & Clarke, M. (2007). Health professional partnerships and their impact on Aboriginal health: an occupational therapist's and Aboriginal health worker's perspective. Australian Journal of Rural Healthh, 15(1), 46-61.
13. Irajpour, A., & Alavi, M. (2015). Health professionals’ experiences and perceptions of challenges of interprofessional collaboration: Socio-cultural influences of IPC. Iranian Journal of Nursing Midwifery, 20(1), 99-104.
14. JCAHO. (2005). Joint Commission guide to improving staff communication. IL: Oakbrook Terrace.
15. Keller, K. B., Eggenberger, T. L., Belkowitz, J., Sarsekeyeva, M., & Zito, A. R. (2013). Implementing successful interprofessional communication opportunities in health care education: a qualitative analysis. International Journal of Medical Education, 4, 253-259.
16. MacNulty, A., & Kennedy, D. (2008). Beyond the models: investing in physician-hospital relationships. Healthcare Financial Management, 62(12), 72-77.
17. Matziou, V., Vlahioti, E., Perdikaris, P., Matziou, T., Megapanou, E., & Petsios, K. (2014). Physician and nursing perceptions concerning interprofessional communication and collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 28(6), 526-533.
18. Morris, D., & Matthews, J. (2014). Communication, Respect and Leadership: Interprofessional collaboration in Hospitals of Rural Ontario. Can J Diet Pract Res, 75(4), 173-179.
19. O'Daniel, M., & Rosenstein, A. H. (2008, April). Professional Communication and Team Collaboration. Retrieved 08 02, 2016, from Patient Safety and Quality: An Evidence-Based Handbook for Nurses: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/
20. Panel, I. E. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington D. C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative .
21. Safran, D. G., Miller, W., & Beckman, H. (2006). Organizational dimensions of relationship-centered care. Theory, evidence, and practice. Journal of General Internal Medicine, 21(1), 9-15.
22. Samadi-niya, A. (2014). The importance of physician-hospital relations in the Canadian health care system. The Canadian Journal of Physician Leadership, 18-22.
23. Schaefer, H. G., Helmreich, R. L., & Scheidegger, D. (1995). Safety in the operating theatre--part 1: interpersonal relationships and team performance. Curr Anaesth Crit Care, 6, 48-53.
24. Sommerfeldt, S. C., Barton, S. S., Stayko, P., Patterson, S. K., & Pimlott, J. (2011). Creating Interprofessional clinical learning units: developing an acute-care model. Nurse Education Practice, 11(4), 273-277.
25. Tubbesing, G., & Chen, F. M. (2015). Insights from exemplar practices on achieving organizational structures in primary care. Journal of Am Board Fam Med, 28(2), 190-194.
26. Veerapen, K., & Purkis, M. E. (2014). Implications of early workplace experiences on continuing interprofessional education for physicians and nurses. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 28(3), 218-225.
27. Verhovsek, E., Byington, R., & Deshkulkarni, S. (2009). Perceptions Of Interprofessional Communication: Impact On Patient Care, Occupational Stress, And Job Satisfaction. The Internet Journal of Radiology, 12(2).
28. Weaver, A. C., Callaghan, M., Cooper, A. L., Brandman, J., & O'Leary, K. J. (2014). Assessing interprofessional teamwork in inpatient medical oncology units. Journal of Oncology Practice, 26(6), 579-584.
29. Wittenberg-Lyles, E., Oliver, D. P., Demiris , G., Burt, S., & Regehr, K. (2010). Inviting the absent members: examiining how caregivers'participation affects hospice team communication. Palliative Medicine, 24(2), 192-195.
30. Woods, J. A., Jackson, D. J., Ziglar, S., & Alston, G. L. (2011). Interprofessional Communication. Drug Topics, 155(8), 42-53.
31. World Health Organization (WHO). (2010). Framework for action on interprofessional education & collaborative practice. Retrieved 08 02, 2016, from http://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2010/WHO_HRH_HPN_10.3_eng.pdf
32. Yildirim, A., Ates, M., Akinci, F., Ross, T., Selimen, D., Issever, H., . . . Akqun, M. (2005). Physician-nurse attitudes toward collaboration in Istanbul's public hospitals. International Journal of Nursing Study, 42(4), 429-437.
33. Zwarenstein, M., Rice, K., Gotlib-Conn, L., Kenaszchuk, C., & Reeves, S. (2013). Disengaged: a qualitative study of communication and collaboratioon between physicians and other professions on general internal medicine wards. BMC Health Services Research, 13, 494-506.