Here's how you can overcome challenges in interdisciplinary teamwork for patient advocacy.

Overcoming challenges in interdisciplinary teamwork for patient advocacy involves fostering clear communication, mutual respect, and collaboration among team members. It's essential to actively listen to each discipline's perspective while keeping the patient's needs as the central focus. Establishing common goals, regular team meetings, and open channels for feedback helps ensure that all voices are heard, leading to more cohesive and effective care. Adapting to different communication styles and addressing conflicts constructively also supports a more unified approach to patient advocacy.

A multidisciplinary team’s strength lies in the diverse perspectives each member brings to patient care, from physicians and psychologists to volunteers and bedside assistants. In palliative care, this diversity often leads to disagreements, which are a normal part of collaborative care. Effective care coordination involves more than just agreeing; it requires advocating for the patient’s needs, particularly from a non-clinician’s broader view of well-being. Assertiveness is crucial, but it must be balanced with professionalism, ensuring conflicts are resolved without crossing boundaries or personalizing issues. The ultimate focus remains on providing the best care.

Shared interdisciplinary goals are important not only for teamwork between clinicians, but for ensuring they stay relevant and realistic for the patient. When each team member is writing their own SMART goals, it is easy for them to become heavy with jargon or focused on what we feel is important as a health professional. Producing shared goals, will lead to a much shorter list of goals, which is less overwhelming for the client. It will also highlight the crossover between goals different clinicians are working with the client on, which will encourage easier identification of opportunities for joint treatment sessions and clinical handover, both of which are essential to effective interdisciplinary team work

In the Indian context, hospice admissions often stem from social constraints, not just medical terminality. Patients may seek hospice care due to pressures like being asked to vacate their homes, even if they prefer staying at home. Social counselors, who are usually the first point of contact, often uncover these issues, making it crucial for the entire team to understand the real reasons for admission. Patients may seem clinically stable but face challenges like job loss, broken relationships, or homelessness. Addressing these factors is essential for holistic care, requiring the team to respect and integrate these social and emotional aspects into the care plans. Without this comprehensive approach, true holistic care cannot be achieved.