Challenges of interprofessional geriatric practice in home care settings: an integrative review

ABSTRACT

This integrative review identified challenges for interprofessional home care and provided recommendations for improving geriatric home care. A search of six databases identified 982 articles; 11 of them met the review’s eligibility criteria and were included in the review. Quality appraisal of the included studies was performed using two tools (Critical Appraisal Skills Program for Qualitative Research and Mixed Methods Appraisal Tool), and their overall methodological quality was found to be satisfactory. After applying D’Amour et al.’s framework, four “challenge” themes emerged: (1) lack of sharing, (2) lack of partnership, (3) limited resources and interdependency, and (4) power issues. Recommendations included providing practical multidisciplinary training guided by a standardized model, establishing streamlined communication protocols and a communication platform reflecting the actual needs of users by involving them in its design, and asking interprofessional team members to commit to home care planning and to cultivate a collaborative culture and organizational support.

KEYWORDS:

• Home care
• geriatrics
• multidisciplinary care
• interprofessional
• challenges

Acknowledgments

We wish to acknowledge the editing assistance of Mr. Kevin Grandfield, publications manager at UIC Department of Biobehavioral Nursing Science, and Jon S. Mann for his editorial assistance.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the University of Illinois Chicago Graduate College’s the Provost’s Award for Graduate Research and Sigma-Alpha Lambda Research Award. The work was performed as part of ENGAGE-IL’s Scholars and Leaders in Interprofessional Geriatrics fellowship.