Interprofessional Collaboration in School-Based Settings Part 1: Definition and the Role of the School Nurse

Abstract

Interprofessional collaboration is an important approach in providing quality care to patients by healthcare professionals. Interprofessional collaboration is common in healthcare organizations such as hospitals and long-term healthcare facilities where each professional of the healthcare team contributes to the overall healthcare plan for the patient. But, little research or discussion how interprofessional collaboration is implemented within the school systems exist. This article looks at interprofessional collaboration within the schools and how the school nurse can facilitate collaboration among healthcare and education professionals to ultimately benefit students. This first article, in a series of three, will define and discuss frameworks and models of interprofessional collaboration.

Interprofessional Collaboration in School-Based Settings, Part 2: Team Members and Factors Contributing to Collaborative Success

“…For example, the majority of examples provided in Table 1 (e.g., type 1 diabetes, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder) would benefit from the school nurse collaborating with the students’ pediatrician along with the professionals identified within the table. As argued in McIntosh et al (2021), school nurses have a vital role in ensuring that the appropriate professionals of the school and community are included on the child’s care team. The following sections focus on the collaboration between the school nurse and various other school-based professionals.…”

“…Oftentimes, issues that arise require treatment that spans outside of the scope of practice of a single profession; IC fills this gap and elevates the care provided for children (Nooteboom et al, 2021). School nurses are uniquely posed to promote IC among the school community (McIntosh et al, 2021). Professionals such as school nurses, registered dietitian nutritionists, school psychologists, and teachers interact with students in different ways.…”

Interprofessional Collaboration in School-Based Settings, Part 3: Implementation of IC Through Case Scenarios

“…The case scenarios serve as a starting point and depict how the school nurse works interprofessionally with both healthcare and nonhealthcare professionals to provide a comprehensive, collaborative approach. The six scenarios below embody the four IPEC competencies as described in the first article in this series (IPEC, 2016; McIntosh et al, 2021). Opportunities for collaboration within each school or school system will vary depending on available professionals employed by the school system or present within the community.…”

“…Interprofessional collaboration (IC) is defined as two or more professionals from different backgrounds and skill sets working as a team to administer services (Morgan et al, 2015), thereby encouraging multiple perspectives and expertise. The first article in this series focused on the need for and importance of IC within schools by defining IC and existing models, providing an overview of IC in school-based populations, and describing the role of the school nurse in ICs (McIntosh et al, 2021). The second article described the process of developing the collaborative team and addressed the facilitators and barriers to IC (Dale et al, 2021).…”

Systems of communication in school‐nurse led care coordination: A concept analysis

“…Yet care coordination research mostly focuses on communication between provider to provider or provider to family. There is less research on interprofessional collaboration for student‐focused care coordination 18 …”