Out of all the leadership theories, I chose Transformational Leadership as a theory that can be utilized in interprofessional education and collaboration. According to Denisco and Barker (2016, p. 117), transformational leadership occurs when two or more persons engage with others in such a way that the leader and followers raise one another to higher levels of motivation and morality. In interprofessional education and collaboration, effective engagement is the key factor in patient’s safety. Each profession must raise each other, not compete or hate each other, in order to promote harmony in a collaborative environment in which the main goal is high-quality patient care.
In interprofessional collaboration, communication is very important. Communication is a complex process of transmitting a message from a sender to receiver. (Denisco & Barker, 2016, p. 136). Communication that is effective is crucial in an interprofessional education. As we know, interprofessional education is an important step in advancing health professional education in preparing health professions students to provide patient care in a collaborative team environment. (Buring et al., 2009). A good communication is important in enhancing the quality of patient care, promotes safety, lowers costs, decreases patients’ length of stay in the hospital, and reduces medical errors. One perfect example of a good and effective communication in interprofessional education is the use of SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation). The technique of SBAR is to communicate to other professionals about patient’s problem by a concise statement of the problem (S for situation), while adding a pertinent and brief information related to the situation (B for background), with the professional’s analysis and considerations of options, as to what he or she found and think (A for assessment), and lastly, by recommending an action that a professional wants to do in order to address the problem or situation. (R for recommendation). Using SBAR will help solve the problem in a structured way.
Some of the potential barriers that will need to be addressed in the formation of an interprofessional team are the misunderstanding of the scope and contribution of each profession, gender, power, socialization, education, status, and cultural differences. My vision of an ideal interprofessional team includes people who do not think of the collaboration as a competition between professions. Instead, they think of it as a unified healthcare team that everybody puts all his or her effort in promoting patient safety. Each member of the team should recognize and value dissimilar professional perspectives and overlapping goals. Additionally, they should share decision-making and leadership to best meet the needs of the patient or problem. The team should interact openly. Each member must convey interest and show attentiveness in order to produce a better interaction. Furthermore, clarifying or eliciting further information is a good way to interact with each other.
Everybody can take the role of leading the team as long as that person possesses qualities that promotes engagement with his or her followers in which leader and followers find meaning and purpose in their work while growing and developing as a result of the relationship and raising one another to higher levels of motivation and morality.
References:
Buring, S., Bhushan, A., Broeseker, A., Conway, S., Duncan-Hewitt, W., Hanse, L., & Westberg, S. (2009). Interprofessional education: Definitions, student competencies, and guidelines for implementation. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73 (4), 59.
Denisco, S. M., & Barker, A. M. (2015). Advanced practice nursing. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
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