Working in Interprofessional Teams in Health Care and

Services
Why do we care so much about interprofessional teams? We care because we know that
this is the best way to help people with complex health challenges become as healthy as
possible. The purpose of InterProfessional health care teams is to help people/patients
achieve optimal health status – to maximize the likelihood of health improvement for a
person/patient. Health improvement can be defined as improved comfort and function,
and reduced severity of illness. So how do we optimize the likelihood of health status
improvement? We do this through collaborative teamwork among various health
professionals and care providers.

Throughout your learning related to interprofessional teams you will be learning the
following critical skills. When you use a combination of these skills you will ensure that
those committed to your care have the best chance of optimal health:
o Understand objectives of care & services from the perspective of the
patient/person
o Communicate well & manage conflict
o Synergize, integrate and collaborate with other team members
o Provide best unique professional services
o Lead collaborative processes & take initiative
o Commit to patient/person-centred care & services
o Work effectively using distance technologies

Which profession will be on the team and for how long is determined by the specific
characteristics of care and the services needed. For some persons with health challenges
there is a formal process in place to help a person/patient pull together the team that will
support his/her health status improvement. An example is a person with cancer in Nova
Scotia: a “Navigator” helps the person with cancer find his/her way through the range of
care and services needed. In most cases, the person with the health challenge is left to
form and manage his/her own team. Forming one’s own team as a patient can be quite
challenging. One is already weaker and less able to function (otherwise one would not be
in need of help from the health care system) and usually has limited knowledge of the
health care system and how it works.

You have one responsibility as a health professional involved with a person/patient: to

determine if a team is needed for the particular patient; if such a team is already in place;
and if you can either contribute to that team collaboratively or provide leadership in
bringing a team together for your patient’s needs.

Team coordination and communication is a task that requires skills, time and
commitment from you and your superiors. An important question here is : who is or
should be the team “leader”? Is it the health professional who coordinates and facilitates
the work of a formal team, or is it the health professional who first recognizes and pulls

© Tri-IPAAC Interprofessional Learning in the Faculties of Dentistry, Health Professions, & Medicine
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia www.dal.ca/ipl October 2008
together the needed team? Further, who is the team “boss”, that is, the one who decides
what the final objectives will be?

The team “boss” should be the person with a health challenge who requires care and
services – the patient. The patient is the one who defines the overall objectives for care
and services, as well as the broader indicators for success (measures like feeling better,
being able to do things). If the patient has complex healthcare needs, getting better will
require more than one health professional’s expertise, so the patient or the patient’s
family and advocates must gather a team to support him/her to gain optimal health. This
is one way in which patient & family centred care is put into practice.

In health care, the team leader (health professional) knows how the health care system
works, the more specific measures for success (e.g. changes in lab test values, degrees of
mobility, etc), the challenges that will be faced, the processes to work through for
effective results, and the best professionals and care providers to have involved. The team
leadership function may be shared among a number of professionals involved with a
particular patient.

Which leads to another key point…

The relationships for a health professional working on one or more interprofessional

teams include relationships with
o the patient or person having a health challenge – the number 1 “boss”
o the patient’s family or advocates who sometimes must take full accountability
o the other members of the team (who also have accountability to more than one
boss or leader)
o the health professional’s own manager in the employing organizational hierarchy
o the health professional’s professional group or association
The ability to manage all these relationships in behalf of the patient/person is critical.

In industry, organization development experts are finding several factors that are of
critical importance to successful team work:
o To have a clear objective
o To have clear accountability.
o To plan effectivelyi
It’s good to know exactly what you are responsible for accomplishing, and who will ask
you to account for that. However, as we have already noted, accountability in
interprofessional healthcare teams is not always clear. Your key skills here are (a)
commitment to the objectives of the patient/person and (b) managing relationships on the
team through communication and collaborative actions.

Interprofessional healthcare teams must also learn to use information technology tools
and processes to support their work. A major challenge to effective, collaborative,
interprofessional work is that communication must often be done asynchronously – you
can’t always have the luxury of regular team meetings with all team members in the same
room at the same time. The healthcare team needed for someone with a chronic disease or

© Tri-IPAAC Interprofessional Learning in the Faculties of Dentistry, Health Professions, & Medicine
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia www.dal.ca/ipl October 2008
other complex condition may not be able ever to meet together in one place at the same
time. Thus, collaboration and communication must take place via tools such as telephone,
electronic transmitters of messages such as email or secure message centres, and shared
professional information sources such as the electronic health record. Skills in working
with these tools in an interprofessional collaborative team will support the patient/person
to improved health status.

For us to have a sense of being part of a team means not only working together but
building a supportive social structure together – a sense that the members of the team
care about each other and are willing to be mutually supportive. One pair of management
experts state that “An effective team is one in which development of a supportive social
structure has occurred, with each individual adapting behavior to optimize personal
contribution to the team.” (Sheard & Kakabese, 2002)ii This can be challenging when you
don’t actually see each other.

Effective interprofessional team members understand that there are significant

differences in values, language, and processes of care. In your professional training each
of you will be picking up the culture of your particular health profession, including
profession-specific values, beliefs, attitudes, customs and behaviors. These are important
and lead to the specialized unique contributions that your health profession provides. You
will have your own way of doing problem-solving and use a unique language that reflects
your professional culture. (Hall, 2005)iii This presents many interesting challenges to
working in interprofessional healthcare teams as you:
o sort out the meaning of words and phrases across different professional cultures,
along with the patient/person’s understanding of these words and phrases
o work out together the various ways of understanding the world (what Hall calls
“cognitive maps”), and problem-solving processes to the best advantage of the
patient/person and the team.

Healthcare is the most complex industry in the world. Working in interprofessional

healthcare teams helps us to manage that complexity, and creates its own challenges at
the same time. May you have every success in building the skills and attitudes needed to
function effectively for the benefit of improved health for the people who most need it.
i
Scholtes, PR, The Team Handbook: How to use teams to improve quality, Joiner Associates Inc. Madison
WI, 1993.

ii
Sheard, AG Kakabadse, AP, From loose groups to effective teams: The nine key factors of the team
landscape. Journal of Management Development, 2002, Volume 21, Issue 2, pp 133-151

iii
Hall, P., Interprofessional teamwork: professional cultures as barriers. Journal of Interprofessional Care
(J INTERPROF CARE), 2005 May; 19: Supplement 1: 188-96

© Tri-IPAAC Interprofessional Learning in the Faculties of Dentistry, Health Professions, & Medicine
Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia www.dal.ca/ipl October 2008