The future of collaborative care
Collaboration between health practitioners across areas of expertise could transform patient care, with University of Tasmania (UTS) researchers part of a consortium to make this approach a national priority.
Associate Professor Roger Dunston says health care is never delivered individually; it’s always a collective endeavour.
The process of diagnosis and treatment can become painfully long for a patient who is passed from GP to hospital specialist to nurse to allied health professional. Miscommunication or even a lack of communication between different areas of expertise often lead to patients being treated symptom by symptom by health professionals working in isolation from each other.
Researchers say this approach “pushes up” the cost of care while frustrating patients hoping for relief and a coordinated response.
Interprofessional education in health (IPE) – where two or more health professions learn from, with and about each other to improve collaboration and patient outcomes – may be the key to addressing workforce shortages, minimising health inequalities and improving the quality of care in Australia. It is also attracting increasing attention from education and professional sectors both nationally and globally.
The concept of IPE has been around for more than half a century but has not been developed and coherently communicated as part of a national agenda.
Researchers at UTS, including Associate Professor Roger Dunston of the Centre for Research in Learning and Change, and Adjunct Professor Jill Thistlethwaite, hope to change this.
“Health care is never delivered individually; it’s always a collective endeavour,” Professor Dunston says. “Encouraging students to work, understand, communicate and learn with others is as critical as teaching disciplinary skills,” he adds.
Along with a consortium of nine Australian universities, two government bodies and a non-government organisation, they have created a report on IPE. Funded by the Office of Learning and Teaching, the report brings together research and recommendations on the design, delivery, development and future of IPE in Australia.
“At the end of a health program or course, there’s an individual who receives accreditation,” Professor Thistlethwaite says. “While the health care environment relies on the way teams work together, the accreditation bodies are only looking at individuals.”
Participants worked in small groups to consider the report’s recommendations. The forum concluded with an agreement to draft a letter to national ministers of health and education, seeking their in-principle and practical support for these recommendations.
Professor Thistlethwaite says Americans are looking into IPE as a model that will potentially help to reduce spiralling health care costs. “But it’s not just about lowering costs; it’s about providing optimal care,” she says.
“With the amount of knowledge out there now, no one person can know everything about a certain condition or have the skills to treat it. We need to educate students to be able to give the type of care necessary in the 21st century with an ageing population. This includes looking at team based care.”
