Bridging the divide of Interdisciplinary Relationships

It’s long been known that as healthcare has evolved, so have the roles and responsibilities of the professions that form it.

Titles change, senior nurses or AHP’s, pharmacists or paramedics are trained and promoted into an advanced practice or specialist roles. You work hard to achieve your Master’s degree, and to integrate yourselves to meet the demands of the health needs of the public. All in an arena of finite resources.

It’s admirable, yet it can be difficult.

High workloads, you are covering shortfalls in staff, trying to keep up with your own training needs and support colleagues. You are establishing yourselves as independent practitioners, whilst striving to part of a cohesive team along with the medical staff.

There’s the challenge of ensuring you are invited to important meetings, instead of being excluded from the “old boys club” who seem to control the flow of information and affect shared decision-making.

That swift changeover of medics every 4 months brings its own challenges. Whether those are differences of personality, of expectations, age, gender, cultural or a case of unaligned values. ?

Despite the fact that everyone has the same goal of safe effective patient care, it may not seem like that when egos or personal agendas get in the way of achieving that objective.

It seems clear to you that others do not understand or appreciate, the specialised knowledge base required for your role, whether those others are the medical team, your line manager or another discipline.

You can understand that everyone wants to protect themselves from whatever Tsunami might come along next. But how often do you hear comments like: Not good enough, not your job, you’re not a doctor, until the next day when you are completely relied on to run the show, yet there’s no encore at the end.

You go home at the end of your shift, and mull over the events of the day into the wee hours, potentially feeling undermined, and undervalued.

Where collaboration and communication are key to achieving that common goal, this should not have to be a solo performance.

On the plus side, there a plenty of well-functioning interdisciplinary relationships out there, underpinned by high levels of trust, honesty and mutual respect. Whose conversations are open, respectful, and contribute to shared decision-making.

There’s a great deal of psychological safety, emotional intelligence, and an appreciation of every team members contributions and expertise. There’s a visible willingness to learn from those team members, whatever their profession, and appreciation for efforts and skills is verbalised.

Collaboration down to a tee.

Having that unified approach to care is good for the patients, it’s good for you, and good for your team, your service or your department.

So, if you are not in that enviable position just described, what do you want to happen, and how are you going to get the results you after?

That’s where the hard work comes in, not soft.

If you would like some help to get started in improving those interdisciplinary relationships, then I would love to help you.

DM me here or visit my website at: www.jennycrompton.com to book your free call.