Interprofessional Practice in Health and Social Care

Citation

Slater, A. (2001), "Interprofessional Practice in Health and Social Care", British Journal of Clinical Governance, Vol. 6 No. 2, pp. 149-150. https://doi.org/10.1108/bjcg.2001.6.2.149.1

A few years ago I analysed a new service in the West Midlands that aimed to stop inappropriate hospital admissions and to get people out of hospital who did not need to be there. It did this by identifying the needs of the patient and providing the most suitable and acceptable package of care for them. The service involved the general practice, secondary care, community nurses, the health authority, social services and local authorities. It was an excellent example of interprofessional practice where the focus was firmly and foremost on the patient’s needs, and everyone else had to fit in around and deliver the best package for them.

Now from the Universities of Brighton and Birmingham, Carolyn, Marnie and Nick provide a review of how nurses, doctors, physiotherapists, and social workers can successfully collaborate. Based on a collection of in depth studies, the book calls for improvements in how professionals learn together. They can learn together in a formal education setting and in the University of Real Life – practice.

Not only will this book help the professionals but more importantly, it can, indeed should, help the patients. As one quote in the book rightly says: “We all need to come towards the patient, not take a little bit away from the patient and work on it individually” (p. 115).

The book has nine chapters covering: the agenda for multiprofessional practice and education; patterns of clinical teamworking; impact of the organisation on teamworking; influence of individual beliefs on teamworking; group process and their effects on teamwork; deriving an educational agenda from the realities of teamworking; the current provision of multiprofessional education; a model for multiprofessional education; and closing the gaps. It is not a comprehensive catalogue of who is doing what, where, why, when, and to what effect, but there is something in here for everyone interested in teamwork and multiprofessional education and practice.

The book is pitched at students, practitioners, managers and lecturers in health and social care. That is a wide audience to reach out to, but this book should bring them to think once again about what really matters – the patient and how they can be best served.