The inter-professional collaboration

The inter-professional collaboration

A.    Introduction

Historically speaking, the definition of inter-professional collaboration has been very narrow. It is about “Multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WTO, 2010).

In the past, professionals with different backgrounds worked independently, such as doctors were only responsible for treatment while nurses were just responsible for nursing and transfusion.  However, because of the challenges of diversified market and complex knowledge, the requirement in inter-professional collaboration has been increased significantly. Also, the definition of collaboration is no longer uses to describe the partnership in health care narrowly, but extends to each corner of social relations, such as in engineers and architectures, or even in university and industry.

Collaboration enables organizations to achieve levels of performance and innovation far superior to what any one person or unit could do alone (Tapscott et al., 2009). Through the inter-professional collaboration, there are more knowledge management and information sharing among independent professionals. Therefore, not only some unnecessary risks can be reduced, but also operating efficiency would be increased. And with the academic and technology exchange in different areas, new ideas and inventions can be created during the process of collaboration.

B.     The classification of inter-professional collaboration

B.1 Inter-professional collaboration between Architects & Engineers

The change of inter-professional collaboration between Architects & Engineers

In mid-eighteenth century, there were an innovation about the engineering schools separating into two different disciplines which were engineering and architecture. Since then, the importance of inter-professional collaboration between these two areas was evolved and deep-going from the originally opposition in 1900s to close collaboration from 1950s to now.Collaboration can be a powerful driver of success in your business.

The importance of inter-professional collaboration

The most significant role of inter-professional collaboration of A&E is effectiveness and efficiency. Firstly, the big influence of decisions on the cost/quality ratio. Secondly, the potential contribution is knowledge and experience for the society. Thirdly, the growing complexity of building projects is well developed in the world. Fourthly, to satisfy wishes of different parties as well as the diminution of building failures.One way is seeking to find commonground, by listening to and understanding theinterests of the other party. (Kandarp, 2012) Fifthly, waste of time and money is reducing in the actual design process.

Building inter-professional collaborations of A&E in modern society

In the modern society, developing more methods of inter-professional collaboration is essential necessity. Firstly, educational integration of constructive performance between architecture and engineering are highly enthusiastic in the higher-education environment nowadays. Although teams that are diverse and composed of highly educated specialists are increasingly crucial with challenging projects. (Lynda, 2007)  Secondly, the web-based system should make a communication interaction system for engineers, architects or designers, and other stakes holders. Thirdly, change management model is quite beneficial for the common adjustments and changes from design to construction.

B.2 Inter-professional collaboration between Doctor & Nurse

The change of collaboration between doctor and nurse

The collaboration is a small number of people with complementary skill who are committed to a common purpose, performance goals and approach for which they hold themselves mutually accountable, Traditionally, the doctor and nurse take separately roles in the treatment, the doctor take the actions such as physical examination, and the nurse execute the treatment plan which made by doctor, in conclusion, the doctor can be seen as a planner, and the nurse is an executer, nowadays, Because of instability, uncertainty, and variability, the collaboration between the doctor and nurse is more and more important.

The motivation for the collaboration between doctor and nurse

There are several motivation for the doctor and nurse, the first one is bringing benefit for each side. The doctor can receive more information during the planning time, while the nurse can also learn more professional knowledge about the treatment, even the patient can receive better service with the inter professional collaboration, it is really a win-win-win model, and then, the collaboration can reduce the risk of the treatment, a monitor system can be built in the team, everybody try to find out the loophole of the treat plan through different sight, and a treatment which include suggestion from different areas is more reliable.

Building the inter professional collaboration between doctor and nurse

Firstly, the collaboration should base on fee for service, it means the payment should base on the contribution, not the time or energy, it is fair for all the people participate in the collaboration, and keep the collaboration process smoothly, secondly, we should reinforce the communication, the knowledge management can help team members share the difficult problems easier, including the  explicit and implicit knowledge, and the daily meeting can built closer relationship between members in team. Lastly, inter professional education is also significant for people to understand how to make collaboration, and the doctor and nurse should take part in different steps of education based on their requirement.

B.3 University-Industry Collaboration

The topic of university-industry collaboration is not new, but since 1970s it has become more system and formal. In traditional conception, the task for university has been to involve in research and purely conduct to educate new academics (Alfares et al., 2005). In traditional U-I collaboration, there are five models, namely consultancy and technical services provision, cooperative R&D agreement, licensing, contract research and spin-off companies. All the models are building the form of partnerships that universities provides brains while industry provides funds and other resources.

There are two shifts during the development of U-I collaboration. First, due to the increased consciousness of innovation in industry, there is a requirement for universities to provide more innovative services than simply technology transfer. And the knowledge transfer expands to social sciences and humanities in terms of the demand of organizational level innovation support. Second, U-I collaboration combines with government to receive support from policy, regulations, government funds etc.

Even though U-I collaboration have many successful practices in worldwide, it has several issues happened in the process of U-I collaboration. Culture differences can influence business negotiations in significant and unexpected ways (Sebenius, 2002). And the problem of argument in intellectual property rights and the recognition of time used in research also create friction between universities and industry and limit the collaboration. So there still need more measures to avoid the conflicts and make the collaboration smoother and deeper.

C.    Conclusion 

Inter-professional collaboration is hot and meaningful topic for society while its definition firstly developed in Doctors-Nurses collaboration to all kinds of industries. In this project, we analyze the inter-professional collaboration not only Doctors-Nurses industry, but also Architects & Engineers and Universities & Industries. Purposes in Inter-professional Collaboration are different, like reducing risks in D&N, improving efficiency and effectiveness in A&E, creation and innovation in U&I. Undoubtedly, inter-professional collaboration had changed a lot in different industries, like from lake of collaboration to tightly collaboration, from the single industries to cross-industries; however, changes do not mean separation and isolation but collaboration andintegration, which will greatly benefit to the whole society and the development of human-being’s life!

Reference

Cyert, R. M. & Goodman, P. S. (1997).Creating Effective University-Industry Alliances: An Organizational Learning Perspective. Organizational Dynamics, pp. 45-57.

Dahlander, L. & Gann, D.M. (2010). How open is innovation. Research Policy, 39(6): 699-709.

Brenowitz, R. (2003). Obliterating Myth About Teams. issue of HR.com

Gratton, L & Erickson, T. (2007). 8 ways to build collaborative teams, Harvard Business Review

Mehta, K. (2012). Five Essential Strategiesfor Creative Negotiations. IESE insight.

Sebenius, J. (2002). The Hidden Challenge of Cross-Border Negotiations.Harvard Business.

Siegel, D. S., D., Waldman, D. A., Atwater, L. E., & Link, A. N. (2003). Commercial knowledge transfers from universities to firms: improving the effectiveness of university–industry collaboration. Journal of High Technology Management Research, 14, pp. 111–133.

Society for Human Resource Management, Leveraging HR and Knowledge Management in a Challenging Economy,p3

Tapscott, D, Erickson, T., Gratton, L., Cross, R., Capek, F. (2009).Building the Collaborative Enterprise: Ten Questions to Ask about Business Opportunities through Collaboration.nGenera Corporation. Retrieved from http://www.i-n-w.org/talking_collaboration/further_reading/Imperative_Building%20a%20Collaborative%20Enterprise.pdf