Studying and Supporting Collaborative Care Processes

Abstract

In patient care today, teams of practitioners from various disciplines must coordinate their efforts in order to deliver care successfully. Frontline nurses and physicians must interact with social workers, therapists, physician assistants, nurse practitioners, and others to develop and carry out coordinated plans of care. Also, clinical team members must communicate with patients and their families in language that can be understood and acted upon. In support of these goals, JCAHO standards require patient care to be planned and provided in an interdisciplinary, collaborative manner. As hospital units develop processes for collaborative care in complex environments such as post-surgery and critical care units, it is important to understand what constitutes success for these processes and how they can be enabled and supported. This report documents a series of field visits and simulations designed to observe, videotape, and interview collaborative care team members, patients, and family members engaged in varying forms of collaborative practice. This ongoing research is being conducted by a multi-disciplinary team of medical and social scientists with a shared goal of studying and supporting collaborative care processes.