A culture of caring: the essence of healthcare interprofessional collaboration

ABSTRACT

Collaboration among healthcare professionals is essential in creating a synergy to provide efficient, safe, and high-quality patient care. Interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP) has become a core measure in promoting healthcare practice. An understanding of the underlying mechanism for healthcare professionals to collaborate can provide strategies to foster IPCP. The purpose of the study was to investigate healthcare professionals’ perspectives on ways to promote IPCP. This was a qualitative descriptive study. Thirty-six healthcare professionals from a university-affiliated hospital participated in the study. Data were collected via face-to-face in-depth interviews and analyzed using a thematic networks framework. The findings indicated that the underlying facilitator of IPCP was a culture of caring – human connections among interprofessional team members. The culture of caring could be fostered through five processes: building caring relationships, developing an ownership mentality, providing constructive feedback, applying the strengths-based practice, and acting as the first and last lines of defense. An Interprofessional Caring Model (ICM) was proposed in this study. Creating a caring culture is a dynamic process requiring all team members’ efforts. The ICM can have significant clinical implications. It can be used as a framework to design and implement specific strategies to improve interprofessional collaboration.

KEYWORDS:

• Caring
• constructive feedback
• culture of caring
• interprofessional collaborative practice
• strengths-based practice
• shared leadership

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank all the participants in the study for their time and willingness to participate in the study and providing the rich and valuable information.

Declaration of interest

The authors report no conflicts of interest.

Additional information

Funding

This study was supported in part by the Leininger Culture Care Scholarship Award from the International Association for Human Caring, the Seed Grant from the College of Nursing at East Carolina University, and the Nursing Research Award from the North Carolina Nurses Association Triangle Region.

Notes on contributors

Holly Wei

Holly Wei is an Assistant Professor, Graduate Nursing Leadership Concentration, East Carolina University College of Nursing, Greenville, NC, USA.

Robin Webb Corbett

Robin Webb Corbett is an Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Advanced Nursing Practice and Education, East Carolina University College of Nursing, Greenville, NC, USA

Joel Ray

Joel Ray is a Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nursing Officer, UNC REX Healthcare, Executive Offices, Raleigh, NC, USA

Trent L. Wei

Trent L. Wei, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, Duke University Medical Center, Durham, NC, USA