From research to practice: building bridges to enhance interprofessional communication between general practitioners and acupuncturists

ABSTRACT

Background: General practitioners (GPs) play an important role in integrated care management and in most cases act as the primary provider and access point for further services. In recent years more and more patients are using complementary and alternative medicine (CAM), including acupuncture, for the management of many health conditions. However, the interaction and collaboration between these two groups in relation to shared health care has not been investigated.

Method: The project utilized a mixed methods multiphase design. A nationwide survey of 400 GPs and 250 acupuncturists was conducted. Univariate data was analysed using descriptive statistics. This was followed by individual semi-structured interviews of 13 purposively sampled acupuncturists, and 14 GPs which was analysed using thematic analysis. The project continued to data driven toolkit development and piloting to further address research’s aims.

Results: The research found that communication was not optimal between the participant groups and identified both facilitators and barriers to integrative care. Key barriers identified were: the lack of suitable pathways and methods for communication to occur, lack of awareness surrounding acupuncturists’ scopes of practice, and the difficulties in identification of suitable practitioners.

Conclusions: This research demonstrated that it is possible to create a toolkit containing elements which are readily included in routine clinical practice for both GPs and acupuncturists. These tools have clinical utility not only to enhance communication and collaboration between GPs and acupuncturists, but to allow transferability to other groups within health care.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional communication
• acupuncture
• integrative care
• toolkits
• primary care
• barriers

Acknowledgments

We acknowledge with appreciation the contributions of the practitioners who completed the survey or who were interviewed. This research did not receive any specific grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Conceived and designed the study KR, TD, JBN. Data collection KR. Data analysis KR. Project supervision TR, JBN. Contributed to writing the manuscript; Original draft KR. Review and editing KR, TD, JBN.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Kate Roberts

Kate Roberts graduated with her Masters in Traditional Chinese Medicine from the University of Technology, Sydney Australia in 2001. She continued her study in 2014, completing a post-graduate certificate in psychological medicine, and is currently enrolled in her PhD at the Otago School of Medicine, Department of General Practice and Primary Care. Since moving to New Zealand in 2002, Kate has been working at the New Zealand School of Acupuncture as a lecturer and clinical supervisor, and has taught both clinical and theory subjects for 1st year through to Masters level students. Kate also is on the Council of Acupuncture New Zealand and the Chair of the Acupuncture for Mental Health Clinical interest group (AMH). In addition to her teaching, Kate runs a private clinical practice in Island Bay Wellington. Kate’s clinical practice specializes in the treatment of mental health, musculo-skeletal conditions, and gynaecology and fertility.

Anthony Dowell

Anthony Dowell Professor, Department of Primary Health Care and General Practice, University of Otago – Wellington, New Zealand.

Jing-Bao Nie

Jing-Bao Nie Professor, Bioethics Centre, Dunedin School of Medicine, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand.