Interprofessional Education: Teamwork

Most of the session was straightforward and I was able to clear up some of the roles and abilities of some healthcare professionals. But what was most memorable was the story from a patient who was also a healthcare professional.

Personal Story

She was a cancer patient and discussed some of the things that were frustrated to her during her time as a patient.

Many parts of the healthcare system were hard to navigate, even for a healthcare professional. It was impressive how many people and roles were involved in her care, but it makes it that much harder to work together to provide her with painless care. Interestingly, her care was much better once she had a final diagnosis, but doesn't quite make sense if the key to fighting cancer is finding it early.

Skit

There was also a mock skit that demonstrated how a lack of interprofessional teamwork can lead to patients be very confused, which lead to a decrease in the quality of care provided.

I think the most important part about interprofessional teamwork is communication, although it can be a challenge to have these dialogues when your own duties are very demanding. It may be worth thinking about how to introduce this interprofessional culture once you are in a position to do so and it could be interesting to run a few PDSA cycles to see what changes can be effective.

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