The role of relational routines in hindering transdisciplinary collaboration: the case of the setting up of a team in an Italian Breast Unit

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional teamwork is one of the main characteristics of centers specialized in the treatment of breast cancer, known as Breast Units, which since 2016 European legislation has made mandatory for Member States. However, interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP) has often been applied in traditional healthcare contexts on the basis of mono-disciplinary approaches. This paper reports the results of a case study of an Italian Breast Unit carried out through a qualitative research strategy. To understand the case being studied in its complexity the data were drawn from multiple sources of evidence: documents, in-depth interviews with Breast Unit members and field notes from the participant observation of team meetings. The case study shows that, despite the healthcare organization promoting interprofessional collaboration through the creation of protocols, organizational environments and structures aimed at encouraging communication and collaboration between the professionals of the team, a series of older routine relational practices remain. These are based on traditional communication models, cultural and professional barriers between members of the team, which hinder the development of innovative ICPs, thus preventing professionals from seeing the need for change in their relational practices towards a trans-disciplinary approach.

KEYWORDS:

• Case study
• innovative interprofessional collaborative practice
• Breast Unit
• relational routines
• transdisciplinary team

Declaration of interest

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Barbara Sena

Barbara Sena is Ph.D. in Socio-economic and Statistical Studies at Sapienza, University of Rome. She is currently Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of Rome Unitelma Sapienza. Her research interests include sociology of health, sociology of health professions, qualitative research methods. Recently she is working on the impact of innovation processes on healthcare services and professions.

Serena Liani

Serena Liani is PhD in Methodology of Social Sciences at Sapienza, University of Rome. Her research interests focus on studying response cognitive processes and understanding how to improve data quality by combining qualitative and quantitative research techniques.