Professionalism as an Individual and Part of a Team

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Top Contributors - Wanda van Niekerk  

Interprofessional Collaboration Beyond Boundaries

Definitions of Different Types of Collaboration

• Multiprofessional collaboration
  • different professions working alongside one another

• Interprofessional collaboration
  • “Consistent demonstration of core values evidenced by professionals working together, aspiring to, and wisely applying principles of altruism and caring, excellence, ethics, respect, communication and accountability to achieve optimal health and wellness in individuals and communities” as defined by the Interprofessional Professionalism Collaboration (IPC).

• Transdisciplinary professionalism
  • “an approach to creating and carrying out a shared social contract that ensures multiple health disciplines, working in concert, are worthy of the trust of patients and the public in order to improve the health of patients and their communities”

Read more about the attributes and behaviours of professionalism here.

If you'd like you can refresh your memory about examples and drivers of unprofessional behaviour here.

Power Relationships in Collaborative Healthcare

Key Principles to adhere to when working with other professionals

Mutual Respect

Communication

Shared-decision making

The Sunnybrook framework of core competencies for interprofessional team collaboration identifies six core competencies:

Add table to PP page from this https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/08404704211063584#table1-08404704211063584

Core competency

Communication

Definition:

Strategy/ behaviours of team

Information exchange in specific and timely manner within and across a team – develop processes for this

Know which team members should be involved in information exchange and knowing what information should be exchanged

Use language that is common among the different professions, avoid jargon and  acronyms, explain and make sure all members understand

Interprofessional conflict resolution

Definition – “ Interprofessional teams respond to anticipated or occurring conflict situations with appropriate and skilled interventions in a timely manner by collaborating to create a range of solutions”

Team:

Proactively and effective address conflict

Be an openminded listener to different opinions and ideas from diverse professions

Difficult issues should be discusses and mutual ground and solutions found

Shared decision making

Def: Interprofessional teams decide collaboratively on plans. Team members come together to determine appropriate actions. Where necessary, teams decide who will make the final deicions and who holds accountability for which task

Team

Creation of interprofessional care plans in the best interests of patients and families/carers

Collaborative decision making on learning goals across all professions

Accountability should be identified and designated especially where there is a role overlap between professions

Core competency: Reflection

Interprofessional teams learn from their history and experiences. Team reflection is both process and performance oriented. Team members identify what they are doing well and what can be improved. They are attentive to optimising how they interact with one another and the impact that their team function may have on patient care/collective work

Team

Create time for ongoing team reflection

Have process and tools in place for reflection

Celebrate success and strategise to address gaps in their collaborations

Appraise how the team is doing by using concepts susch as team development and team dynamics

Core competency

Role clarrificaion

Interprofessional team ensure that members understand each other’s role. Scopes and expertise. They explore interdependencies between their roles and optimise each member’s scope with consideration of repetition and redundancies

Team

Professionals can describe their role and scope of practice to other team members

Team members actively seek to understand other members’ roles and scope of practice

Professionals acknowledge their limitation and consult with team members

Core competency: Interprofessional values and ethics

Interprofessional teams create a climate of transparency, opennessa and willingness to collaborate. They maintain a inclusive approach to and every team member’s perspective is valued

Team

Professionals speack with positive regard when discussting the roles and professions of other team members

Provides a safe environment for professionals to speak up

Acknowledges and considersthe values and ethics of the organisation, regulatory bodies and team members in team discussions

McLaney E, Morassaei S, Hughes L, Davies R, Campbell M, Di Prospero L. A framework for interprofessional team collaboration in a hospital setting: Advancing team competencies and behaviours. InHealthcare management forum 2022 Mar (Vol. 35, No. 2, pp. 112-117). Sage CA: Los Angeles, CA: SAGE Publications.

Cultural Competence and Sensitivity

Healthcare professionals have similar levels of unconscious bias than others and it is important to be aware of this.

Read: Implicit Bias in Healthcare https://www.physio-pedia.com/Implicit_Bias_in_Healthcare

Cultural competence – definition

“It is an encompassing open-mindedness and respect for people, families and societies of various cultural backgrounds.” Lin CJ, Lee CK, Huang MC. Cultural competence of healthcare providers: A systematic review of assessment instruments. Journal of Nursing Research. 2017 Jun 1;25(3):174-86.

Cultural competence in healthcare refers to the ability of healthcare providers to deliver high-quality care to patients from diverse cultural backgrounds. It involves understanding and respecting the cultural differences, values, beliefs, and practices of patients and their families, and adapting healthcare services to meet their unique needs. Cultural competence requires healthcare providers to be aware of their own cultural biases and assumptions, as well as those of their patients, and to communicate effectively across cultural boundaries. It involves providing care that is sensitive to the cultural nuances of patients, including their language, customs, and values. Cultural competence is essential in healthcare because it can improve health outcomes, increase patient satisfaction, and reduce health disparities.

Principles

Self-awareness

Cultural knowledge

Respectful communication

Collaborative care

Strategies

Cultural competence training

Diverse workforce and inclusive practices

Language services and communication tools

Navigating Regulations, Licensing and Ethical Standards

Importance of

Patient safety and quality of care Pozgar GD. Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2023 Mar 31.

Professional integrity and trust Pozgar GD. Legal and ethical issues for health professionals. Jones & Bartlett Learning; 2023 Mar 31.

Navigating Regulatory Framework

Understand regulatory bodies

Licencing requirements

Ethical Standards

Read more

Code of ethics

Informed consent and confidentialityClinical Ethics and Professionalism   PDF not available through ClinicalKey

Patrick D. Herron

Textbook of Physical Diagnosis: History and Examination, 30, 644-654.e1

Conflict of interest management

Professionalism and Accountability

Read more

Continuous professional development

Professional respect

Social Responsibility

Social responsibility in healthcare is the professional duty of healthcare professionals to impact and improve the health of their society. This includes: Janeway M, Wilson S, Sanchez SE, Arora TK, Dechert T. Citizenship and social responsibility in surgery: a review. JAMA surgery. 2022 Jun 1;157(6):532-9.

Diagnosing the social causes of disparities in health outcomes

Providing local and systemic interventions

Social determinants of health are defined as the circumstances in which humans are born, develop, live, earn and age. The distribution of money, power and resources influences these circumstances.

These circumstances include: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9899154/

Education access and quality

Social and community context

Food security

Economic stability

Healthcare access and quality

Neighbourhood and built environment

Read more about social determinants of health

Resources

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