Interprofessional Health Professions Collaboration

The Waters College of Health Professions is committed to promoting collaboration among different health professions, community partners, students and educators. Resources and links here can be used to create and promote effective collaborative learning and practice. We are passionate about improving the quality of patient and population centered care by emphasizing the core competencies of interprofessional collaborative health care.

Values and Ethics

General Competency

Work with others to maintain a climate of mutual respect and a shared value for patient and community centered care.¹

Specific Competencies

• Place the interests of patients and populations at the center of health care delivery.
• Maintain the dignity, privacy, and confidentiality of patients within team-based care.
• Embrace and respect the diversity and individual differences of patients, populations, and health care team members.
• Respect the unique cultures, values, roles/responsibilities, and expertise of other health professions.
• Work in cooperation with those who receive care, those who provide care, and others who contribute to or support
  the delivery of disease prevention and health services.
• Develop a trusting relationship with patients, families, and other team members (CIHC, 2010).
• Demonstrate high standards of ethical conduct and quality of care in one’s contributions to team-based care.
• Manage ethical dilemmas specific to interprofessional patient/population centered care situations.
• Act with honesty and integrity in relationships with patients, families, and other team members.
• Maintain competence in one’s own profession appropriate to the scope of practice

_{1 Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.}

Roles and Responsibilities

General Competency

Use the knowledge of one’s own role and those of other professions to appropriately assess and address the healthcare needs of the patients and populations served.¹

Specific Competencies

• Communicate one’s roles and responsibilities clearly to patients, families, and other professionals.
• Recognize one’s limitations in skills, knowledge, and abilities.
• Engage diverse healthcare professionals who complement one’s own professional expertise, as well as associated resources, to develop strategies to meet specific patient care needs.
• Explain the roles and responsibilities of other care providers and how the team works together to provide care.
• Use the full scope of knowledge, skills, and abilities of available health professionals and healthcare workers to provide care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.
• Communicate with team members to clarify each member’s responsibility in executing components of a treatment plan or public health intervention.
• Forge interdependent relationships with other professions to improve care and advance learning.
• Engage in continuous professional and interprofessional development to enhance team performance.
• Use unique and complementary abilities of all members of the team to optimize patient care.

_{1 Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.}

Communication

General Competency

Communicate with patients, families, communities, and other health professionals in a responsive and responsible manner that supports a team approach to the maintenance of health and the treatment of disease.¹

Specific Competencies

• Choose effective communication tools and techniques to facilitate discussions and interactions that enhance team function, including information systems and communication technologies.
• Organize and communicate information with patients, families, and healthcare team members in a form that is understandable, avoiding discipline-specific terminology when possible.
• Express one’s knowledge and opinions to team members involved in patient care with confidence, clarity, and respect, working to ensure common understanding of information and treatment and care decisions.
• Listen actively, and encourage ideas and opinions of other team members.
• Give timely, sensitive, instructive feedback to others about their performance on the team, responding respectfully as a team member to feedback from others.
• Use respectful language appropriate for a given difficult situation, crucial conversation, or interprofessional conflict.
• Recognize how one’s own uniqueness, including experience level, expertise, culture, power, and hierarchy within the healthcare team, contributes to effective communication, conflict resolution, and positive interprofessional working relationships (University of Toronto, 2008).
• Communicate consistently the importance of teamwork in patient-centered and community-focused care.

_{1 Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.}

Teamwork

General Competency

Apply relationship-building values and the principles of team dynamics to perform effectively in different team roles to plan and deliver patient/population-centered care that is safe, timely, efficient, effective, and equitable.¹

Specific Competencies

• Describe the process of team development, and the roles and practices of effective teams.
• Develop consensus on the ethical principles to guide all aspects of patient care and team work.
• Engage other health professionals in shared patient-centered problem-solving appropriate to the specific care situation.
• Integrate the knowledge and experience of other professions to inform care decisions, while respecting patient and community values and priorities/preferences for care, appropriate to the specific care situation.
• Apply leadership practices that support collaborative practice and team effectiveness.
• Engage one’s self and others to constructively manage disagreements about values, roles, goals, and actions that arise among healthcare professionals and with patients and families.
• Share accountability with other professions, patients, and communities for outcomes relevant to prevention and health care.
• Reflect on individual and team performance for individual and team performance improvement.
• Use process improvement strategies to increase the effectiveness of interprofessional teamwork and team-based care.
• Use available evidence to inform effective teamwork and team-based practices.
• Perform effectively on teams and in different team roles in a variety of settings.

_{1 Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel. (2011). Core competencies for interprofessional collaborative practice: Report of an expert panel. Washington, D.C.: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.}