Understanding communication, team working and ethical practice in professional practice
Janet Holt; Jill Edwards; Julie Laxton; Helen Nicolson
Abstract for Royal College of Nursing Research Society Conference, Harrogate,
Background: Interprofessional working and assessment across professions requires collaboration, understanding of a common purpose, pooling of knowledge and expertise and the facilitation of joint decisions based on shared professional perspectives (Barrett & Keeping, 2005). If professional identity is important to the success or failure of interprofessional working, then it is reasonable to assume it to also be of significance in interprofessional assessment. Despite policy drivers for interprofessional learning (Department of Health 2007), professional culture and professional identity have been found to be compromised by this approach (Colyer 2004). But, there is little evidence in the literature of the impact of professional identity on interprofessional assessment.
Aims: Using three generic skills, this preliminary study explored what health practitioners understood communication, team-working and ethical practice to mean within their profession, whether the understandings differed across the professions and how responses impacted on interprofessional assessment.
Methods: A purposeful sample of 20 practitioners was recruited across 8 professions (midwifery, nursing, medicine, clinical physiology, dentistry, radiography, social work and audiology). Diversity was sought across gender and experience in assessing students. Semi structured interviews were used for data collection and analysed using the Framework approach.
Findings: Preliminary findings found that across the 8 professions communication and team-working were understood by practitioners in a similar way and there was little difference in how these competencies were viewed. Whilst commonalities were identified in ethical practice (e.g. maintaining confidentiality and following ethical guidelines), differences were identified relating to the type of procedures undertaking across professions. Professionals were keen to maintain the distinctiveness of their profession but recognised the importance of working together for the best outcome of the patient.
Conclusion: This study has identified the barriers and facilitators to interprofessional assessment across 8 professions and the importance of taking professional identity into account to improve assessment of practice.
References
Barrett, G., & Keeping, C. (2005). The processes required for effective interprofessional working. In G. Barrett, D. Sellman & J. Thomas (Eds.), Interprofessional Working in Health and Social Care. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan.
Colyer, H. M. (2004). The construction and development of health professionals: where will it end? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 48(4), 406-412.
Department of Health (2007). Creating an Interprofessional Workforce: An Education and Training Framework for Health and Social Care. London: DoH.