Collaboration and collective competence are essential to meeting the health care needs of society today. There are six interrelated characteristics of collaboration that are necessary for successful teamwork. Barriers involving historical and sociocultural norms, ineffective communication, regulatory and organizational policies act to impede collaboration. Personal experiences from nursing practice provide samples of collaboration efforts. This paper discusses the significance of collaboration in today’s healthcare environment as well as the author’s experiences with barriers to and instances of collaboration in clinical practice.
Collaboration and Collective Competence
Collaboration is a process involving at least two entities who …show more content…
Every member of the collaborative team relies on the others to be responsible for their own expertise. A common purpose shared by group members provides the framework for developing goals. Effective communication is tied to both accountability and trust. Members of the health care team must express themselves proficiently regardless of the situation. Interpersonal competence is paramount to communication in today’s health care climate. Clinical and interpersonal competence along with effective communication are essential building blocks in establishing trust and mutual respect. Successful collaboration is also dependent upon members valuing diversity. Each person is obligated to respect the body of knowledge from each discipline and utilize that knowledge to achieve the common goal. It is the diversity of information that leads to the highest quality of health care. Collaboration also requires a bit of purposeful humor to invite open communication, alleviate stress and defuse tensions which allows the group to progress toward common goals (Hanson & Carter, …show more content…
Despite the value, there are five major areas that pose barriers to effective collaboration. Historically health care disciplines are educated in separate schools with little interdisciplinary training. The pervasive detachment in educational approach in addition to continuing portrayal of role and gender stereotypes in the media reinforce the past biases that impede effective collaboration. Unacceptable actions from individual clinicians result in avoidance behavior of colleagues which also undermines progress toward collaboration. On a broader scale, federal and state policies supporting physician led hierarchy and referencing physician oversight of advanced practice nurses cause an imbalance which impedes collaboration (Hanson & Carter,
Collaboration and Collective Competence
Collaboration is a process involving at least two entities who …show more content…
Every member of the collaborative team relies on the others to be responsible for their own expertise. A common purpose shared by group members provides the framework for developing goals. Effective communication is tied to both accountability and trust. Members of the health care team must express themselves proficiently regardless of the situation. Interpersonal competence is paramount to communication in today’s health care climate. Clinical and interpersonal competence along with effective communication are essential building blocks in establishing trust and mutual respect. Successful collaboration is also dependent upon members valuing diversity. Each person is obligated to respect the body of knowledge from each discipline and utilize that knowledge to achieve the common goal. It is the diversity of information that leads to the highest quality of health care. Collaboration also requires a bit of purposeful humor to invite open communication, alleviate stress and defuse tensions which allows the group to progress toward common goals (Hanson & Carter, …show more content…
Despite the value, there are five major areas that pose barriers to effective collaboration. Historically health care disciplines are educated in separate schools with little interdisciplinary training. The pervasive detachment in educational approach in addition to continuing portrayal of role and gender stereotypes in the media reinforce the past biases that impede effective collaboration. Unacceptable actions from individual clinicians result in avoidance behavior of colleagues which also undermines progress toward collaboration. On a broader scale, federal and state policies supporting physician led hierarchy and referencing physician oversight of advanced practice nurses cause an imbalance which impedes collaboration (Hanson & Carter,