Developing interprofessional collaborative practice competencies in rural primary health care teams

Relationship between nurses' perceptions of the benefits/challenges of nursing and degree of interprofessional and intraprofessional collaboration in all-inclusive services combining day services, overnight stays and home-visit nursing for the older people living at home

Background

Many countries are experiencing rapid population aging, and the provision of support for older adults with diseases or disabilities to continue living in their communities is a major global challenge. Japan has established multifunctional long-term care in small group homes and home-visit nursing (MLSH) as a service category that integrates medical and care services. These services focus on nursing functions to support continuous, long-term home, and end-of-life care for older adults with high levels of medical care dependency. This study aimed to clarify the relationship between nurses' perceptions of nursing benefits/challenges and the degree of interprofessional collaboration in the context of MLSH.

Methods

We conducted a mail questionnaire survey of MLSH facilities throughout Japan. All facilities in Japan that had been operating for at least 1 year were included. We analyzed 182 responses (response rate: 36.0%; valid response rate: 98.3%).

Results

Comparison of scores representing the degree of interprofessional collaboration perceived by nurses showed the highest score was for colleague nurses (3.9 ± 0.5) and the lowest was for external care managers (2.5 ± 0.9). Compared with the weak collaboration group, the strong collaboration group had higher perceptions of the benefits of nursing and lower perceptions of the challenges.

Conclusions

The results of this study suggest that strong collaboration allows teams to achieve sufficient effects of care while reducing related challenges. It may be necessary to promote collaboration with external professionals to appropriately manage service users' worsened conditions and improve the quality of care.

FITRI's four steps in developing primary health cares' interprofessional collaborative: an intervention for fostering IPCP competencies

It is important to fill the gaps in collaborative practice due to the lack of the healthcare professionals' ability to work in collaboration with other disciplines. However, the current team training does not routinely address this important issue. This study aimed to identify how interactive interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) learning materials in a virtual course and community implementation called FITRI's four steps in developing primary health cares' interprofessional collaborative practice can be used in primary healthcare settings to address IPCP competencies of healthcare providers. This research was a quasi-experimental study with an untreated control group design using a dependent pretest and posttest sample. A purposive sample of 50 primary healthcare providers consisting of general physicians, dentists, nurses, dietitians, and pharmacists were nonrandomly divided into the control and intervention groups. This study showed that IPCP competencies measured by the Interprofessional Collaborator Assessment Rubric (ICAR) in the intervention group were significantly higher after the training and implementation than before. The Mann-Whitney tests indicated that IPCP competencies were better in the intervention group than the control group. Based on effect size analysis, the intervention had a very strong impact and could significantly improve the participants' competencies, especially in the collaborative patient/client-family centered approach domain. The FITRI's four steps in developing primary health cares' interprofessional collaborative practice can be implemented and provide positive impacts in primary healthcare settings to improve and foster competencies of IPCP in primary healthcare.

Prática colaborativa na Estratégia Saúde da Família

Objetivo: compreender a configuração da Prática Colaborativa no contexto da Estratégia Saúde da Família. Método: trata-se de um estudo de caso único, de natureza qualitativa, realizado com trinta e cinco profissionais das equipes de saúde da família. A coleta de dados ocorreu por meio de entrevistas, guiadas por roteiro semiestruturado e observação não participante. Os dados foram analisados por meio de Análise de Conteúdo Temática. Resultados: os resultados evidenciaram potencialidades da prática colaborativa para a qualificação das práticas profissionais e dos resultados de saúde, no contexto da ESF. Entretanto observou-se insuficiência de dispositivos organizacionais para apoiar o trabalho compartilhado na ESF, desafio a ser superado, inclusive no que tange às políticas públicas, revelando o chamamento para a educação interprofissional no contexto dos serviços de saúde para estimular a colaboração. Conclusão: a configuração da Prática Colaborativa interprofissional no contexto da Estratégica Saúde da Família é desafiadora e requer processos interacionais e da organização do trabalho.