How organizations can support interprofessional collaboration through the eyes of faculty and other professionals

IntroductionInterprofessional collaborative practice (IPC) is deemed essential to address the quadruple aims of improving healthcare. There is also emerging interest in the role IPC among healthcare faculty in their educational and research roles educators. Various facilitators and barriers of IPC at the individual and team levels have been identified. However, organizations and systems are often strong drivers for professional practice and limited attention has been placed on the strategies needed for organizations to support IPC. This study explored the perspectives of faculty and other professions regarding organizational facilitators and barriers to IPC, as well as strategies to support IPC within their own professional contexts. MethodsDocument analysis was performed on papers from a course entitled "Interprofessional Collaboration in Practice", a requirement of a Doctor of Health Sciences in Clinical and Academic Leadership program. The papers were written as part of a culminating project exploring opportunities to enhance IPC within students own professional contexts. Students used reflections of their own professional experiences, informed by the literature and other course content, as well as informal interviews with other professionals in their workplace, to explore facilitators, and barriers to IPC. Inductive content analysis was performed by two members of the research team. Final results and selective quotes were reviewed by the full research team. ResultsTwenty papers written by students of various professional backgrounds, professional roles, and organizational types were included. Four dominant themes were identified that reflected facilitators and barriers to IPC that existed within students organizations. These four aspects of organizations appear to be both essential and inter-related, and include organizational systems, strategic priorities, culture, and institutional leaders. ConclusionOrganizations and their senior leaders play a critical role in developing collaborative organizations where employees from various professions effectively work together to accomplish organizational goals. In addition to the current practice of preparing individual healthcare professionals for IPC, attention to organizations and their leaders is essential. Faculty and other professionals have particularly valuable perspectives in understanding how IPC can be advanced in healthcare organizations and should be the focus of future professional development initiatives and additional research related to IPC. Trial registrationnot applicable