Continuing medical education: Interprofessional working and continuing medical education

The organisational context for teamwork: Comparing health care and business literature

“…Despite the many inherent difficulties of teamwork, most health care professionals have a personal desire to learn and they value meeting the needs of their patients (Headrick, Wilcock & Batalden 1998). However, it appears that effective teamwork in health care organisations is assumed and expected, often without sufficient consideration for the types of team required and the organisational context in which they function.…”

“…Other systems of portfolio management also exist where team leaders are responsible for additional projects (Birleson 1998). In some settings, health care professionals caring for the same group of patients may be employed by different organisations and work to different standards (Headrick, Wilcock & Batalden 1998). Problems with these structures arise when there are blurred boundaries, uncertain power relationships and individuals have to reconcile the differences.…”

“…As a result, there are risks of fragmented care with more new services and specialisations and a greater need for collaboration. The collective knowledge and skills of health care professionals needs to be maximised to meet the increasing complexity of patients' need (Loxley 1997;Headrick, Wilcock & Batalden 1998). Teams therefore need to include the contributions and perspectives of many specialists, in order to enhance the quality of patient care and clinical outcomes (Horwitz 1970;Snyder 1981;Porter-O'Grady 1997;Firth-Cozens 1998;Rissel, Holt & Ward 1998).…”

“…Further, when members hold different views, they do not always listen to and accept the opinions of other team-members, cooperate or show commitment to the team's activities (Hearnshaw et al 1998). With the introduction of general managers to health care settings, many clinical professionals have experienced tensions between corporate management priorities and traditional clinical freedom and autonomy (Headrick, Wilcock & Batalden 1998). …”

Health care improvement and continuing interprofessional education: Continuing interprofessional development to improve patient outcomes

“…It can be described by a metaphor where these elements are considered as the warp and weft of a rich and vibrantly coloured tapestry within which many colours are interwoven to produce a picture that no colour can produce alone. 68 This requires education to move beyond its role in keeping individual staff up to date in a rapidly changing world to contributing to the development of a social learning culture in practice settings as being core to the way we all work, and most importantly, work together. Figure 1 shows how we see the elements integrating across permeable membranes through the intentional nourishing of social learning to weave the CIPD tapestry at its centre.…”