Promotion of role clarification in the Health Care Team Challenge

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional collaboration has consistently been associated with positive client-care outcomes. Role clarification is one facet of interprofessional collaboration that is thought to be crucial for effective interprofessional team functioning. Given the positive outcomes associated with interprofessional collaboration, educators have begun to integrate formal interprofessional education events into healthcare curricula. The Health Care Team Challenge (HCTC) is a collaborative competition designed to promote interprofessional competencies among students in healthcare fields. The current study empirically investigated whether this event promoted role clarification among participants. Sixteen participants in five healthcare professions (occupational therapy, physiotherapy, clinical psychology, nursing, and medicine) completed two questionnaires to assess role clarification before and after participating in this event. Results indicate that participants’ understanding of their own and other professions’ roles improved after participating in this team activity. These results suggest that the HCTC is effective in promoting role clarification and collaboration among healthcare students.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional collaboration
• interprofessional education
• role clarity
• survey
• teamwork

Acknowledgements

The authors thank Queen’s Health Interprofessional Student Society and the Office of Interprofessional Education and Practice at Queen’s University for their role in facilitating this research and organising the HCTC event. The authors also thank Canadian Forces Base Kingston for providing a client case for the HCTC and for judging the event.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the content and writing of this article.