6
Interprofessional Leadership, Collaboration, and Teamwork
Colleen Toye and Joan Wagner
The complexity of delivering effective health and social care means that not one profession can meet the needs of patients in the 21st century — a new and more flexible approach to the delivery of care is required. (Reeves, Macmillan, & van Soeren, 2010, p. 262)
Introduction
Welcome to the world of teams and collaboration! In this chapter, you will begin to understand the importance of effective multidisciplinary relationships with respect to optimal client health outcomes in the community, and in turn, the necessity of interprofessional leadership in negotiating these relationships. No matter the population served, the need for collaborative practice is critical in our health system today.
Learning Objectives
- Describe the increasing complexity of health care needs in the community and the implications of that complexity within our current health system.
- Explore the need for interprofessional collaboration in community care.
- Examine the importance of client and family engagement in their care.
- Identify parallels between leadership characteristics or styles and interprofessional leadership within collaborative practice.
- Determine specific skills and practices that support interprofessional leadership and collaboration.
- Recognize cornerstone components that can lead to successful collaboration.
- Explore relational dynamics of positive teams.
6.1 Background: Why the Need for Interprofessional Collaboration?
Primary Health Care
The urgent need for the implementation of primary health care throughout the world was given international recognition at the World Health Organization (WHO) conference in Alma-Ata, USSR in 1978. Primary health care was described as “a community-based health care service philosophy that is focused on illness prevention, health promotion, treatment, rehabilitation, and identification of people at risk” (Howse & Grant, 2015, p. 132). The Canadian Nurses Association (CNA) issued a position statement strongly supporting the five essential principles of primary health care: “accessibility, active public participation, health promotion and chronic disease prevention and management, the use of appropriate technology and innovation, [and] intersectoral cooperation and collaboration” (CNA, 2015, p. 1). Collaboration and teamwork across the professions and health care sectors are required to meet the five principles inherent within the primary health care service philosophy adopted at Alma-Ata. These principles are the catalyst for interprofessional and inter-sectoral health care collaboration in the provision of comprehensive health care to the public.
Figure 6.1.1 Public Health Nurse in Action
Providing Primary Health Care: Complex Client Needs and the Shift to Care in the Community Sector
Worldwide, the population of persons over the age of 65 is growing, and in most developed countries the increase is most striking in those aged 80