696
Views
11
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Article

Using a sociomaterial approach to generate new insights into the nature of interprofessional collaboration: Findings from an inpatient medicine teaching unit

, , , , &
Pages 153-162 | Received 26 Apr 2017, Accepted 05 Sep 2018, Published online: 15 Oct 2018
 

ABSTRACT

Today’s hospitals are burdened with patients who have complex health needs. This is readily apparent in an inpatient internal medicine setting. While important elements of effective interprofessional collaboration have been identified and trialled across clinical settings, their promise continues to be elusive. One reason may be that caring for patients requires understanding the size and complexity of healthcare networks. For example, the non-human ‘things’ that healthcare providers work with and take for granted in their professional practice—patient beds, diagnostic imaging, accreditation standards, work schedules, hospital policies, team rounds—also play a role in how care is shaped. To date, how the human and non-human act together to exclude, invite, and regulate particular enactments of interprofessional collaboration has been subject to limited scrutiny. Our paper addresses this gap by attending specifically to the sociomaterial. Drawing on empirical data collected from an Academic Health Sciences Centre’s inpatient medicine teaching unit setting in Ontario, Canada, we explore the influence of the sociomaterial on the achievement of progressive collaborative refinement, an ideal of how teams should work to support safe and effective patient care as patients move through the system. Foregrounding the sociomaterial, we were able to trace how assemblies of the human and the non-human are performed into existence to produce particular enactments of interprofessional collaboration that, in many instances, undermined the quality of care provided. Our research findings reveal the “messiness” of interprofessional collaboration, making visible how things presently assemble within the inpatient setting, albeit not always in the ways intended. These findings can be used to guide future innovation work in this and other similar settings.

Disclosure Statement

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

Log in via your institution

Log in to Taylor & Francis Online

PDF download + Online access

  • 48 hours access to article PDF & online version
  • Article PDF can be downloaded
  • Article PDF can be printed
USD 65.00 Add to cart

Issue Purchase

  • 30 days online access to complete issue
  • Article PDFs can be downloaded
  • Article PDFs can be printed
USD 1,151.00 Add to cart

* Local tax will be added as applicable

Related Research

People also read lists articles that other readers of this article have read.

Recommended articles lists articles that we recommend and is powered by our AI driven recommendation engine.

Cited by lists all citing articles based on Crossref citations.
Articles with the Crossref icon will open in a new tab.