Moving on from structured communication to collaboration: a communication schema for interprofessional teams

ABSTRACT

Objectives: We describe a conceptual framework for an approach towards an effective and collaborative communication strategy among interprofessional health care team members.

Methods: Interprofessional health care team members apply different communication techniques to share healthcare data. They are often not taught how to recognize and respond to the challenges carried by emotions and pressure to conform among team members. Those two factors have the potential to affect the quality and outcome of communication with a resulting suboptimal clinical decision-making. Here, we developed a Communication Schema that addresses the three critical concepts that are embedded in any conversation, namely: 1 – understanding the contribution of social interaction in teamwork, 2 – recognizing and managing triggered emotions, and 3 – effective inquiries and exploration of points of view.

Implications: We call on extending the traditional view of teamwork as a collection of skills to include the reality of interprofessional practice where people working together are influenced by social experience and expectations. The learning conversation schema offers a tool that is sensitive to innate threats to effective communication in working environments and allows its users to circumvent obstacles to optimum shared decision-making.

KEYWORDS:

• Communication failures
• structured communication
• healthcare teams
• interprofessional
• learning conversations
• communication skills
• collaboration
• emotions

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Dr Ghazwan Altabbaa is an Internal Medicine specialist, clinical associate professor, and assistant program director for Internal Medicine Residency Program with the Department of Medicine at the University of Calgary. He received his MD degree in 1990 from Damascus University, certified in Internal Medicine in 1998, and completed research and clinical fellowships in Nephrology at Wayne State University in Detroit, Michigan. He completed a Master’s of Science in Clinical Epidemiology in 2012 at the University of Calgary. Dr Altabbaa's interests include medical education with an emphasis on high-fidelity simulation wherein he is a certified educator by the Society of Simulation in Healthcare and director of the High-Fidelity Human Patient Simulation Program within the Internal Medicine Residency Training Program. Research areas include diagnostics, clinical decision support, and the use of high-fidelity simulation to enhance patient safety and human performance in healthcare.

Dr. Alyshah Kaba has completed her PhD in Medical Education at the University of Calgary. She is currently the Lead Research Scientist for eSIM Provincial Simulation Program and Process Improvement in the department of Quality Health Improvement within Alberta Health Services, Alberta Canada.

Dr. Tanya N. Beran holds a PhD degree in Medical Education and is a registered psychologist with two primary programs of research. The first research area is how healthcare professionals make decisions within team environments. Her research team has published several empirical studies of how students in the health professions do conform to inaccurate information. She continues to examine how this behavior affects medical errors and patient care. She has taught Research Design and Statistics courses as well as many courses in psychology at the University of Calgary. The second research area is the application of robotics to pediatric pain management.