Interprofessional collaborative practice: A deconstruction

Abstract

This paper uses (and perhaps abuses) deconstruction to revisit the meanings of collaboration and practice. We start with a description of deconstruction itself, as espoused by Jacques Derrida, and then move onto challenging the notion that words, such as collaboration, can have fixed meanings. And, in the spirit of Derrida, “I can foresee the impatience of the bad reader: this is the way I name or accuse the fearful reader, the reader in a hurry to be determined, decided upon deciding (in order to annul, in other words to bring back to oneself, one has to wish to know in advance what to expect…)” (Derrida, 1987, p. 4 – original italics), we move straight into the text.

Keywords::

• Collaboration
• communication
• interprofessional collaboration
• interprofessional practice
• practice
• team-based practice
• teamwork

Declaration of interest: The authors declare no conflict of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this paper

Notes

¹ Evidence for this as indicated by current ALTC (Australian Learning and Teaching Council) survey, so far unpublished as work in progress.