Event Title
Does the Collaborator Competency Mean the Same Thing to All People? A Discourse Analysis of Interprofessional Collaboration
Start Date
5-10-2011 10:45 AM
End Date
5-10-2011 11:45 AM
Abstract
Introduction
Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) has become a dominant theme in healthcare and medical education. While its implementation in practice has been fraught with tension, IPC has nevertheless achieved prominence in medical education, as a key competency in Canadian and American competency‐based frameworks. This study sought to better understand the tensions underlying IPC by exploring how the discourse has been constructed over the course of its rise in healthcare.
Methods
We used a Foucauldian discourse analysis methodology. For this first study, we limited our corpus to peer‐reviewed literature reflecting North American constructions of IPC between physicians and nurses. Papers were retrieved through an iterative search strategy using computerized databases from Medicine and Nursing. The final corpus included 123 papers.
Results
We identified two discourses of IPC. The utilitarian discourse reflects positivism, constructing IPC as a tool for improving healthcare outcomes. The emancipatory discourse, influenced by liberation movements, constructs IPC as a tool for liberating nurses from medical dominance. Each discourse gives rise to unique objects and practices. The relationship between the discourses is neither developmental nor a simple binary opposition.
Conclusion
The presence of two dominant discourses of IPC may provide insight into the difficulties inherent in implementing IPC initiatives. Educational programs should consider whether and in what ways these discourses may underpin or complicate their curricular and assessment efforts.
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Does the Collaborator Competency Mean the Same Thing to All People? A Discourse Analysis of Interprofessional Collaboration
Introduction
Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC) has become a dominant theme in healthcare and medical education. While its implementation in practice has been fraught with tension, IPC has nevertheless achieved prominence in medical education, as a key competency in Canadian and American competency‐based frameworks. This study sought to better understand the tensions underlying IPC by exploring how the discourse has been constructed over the course of its rise in healthcare.
Methods
We used a Foucauldian discourse analysis methodology. For this first study, we limited our corpus to peer‐reviewed literature reflecting North American constructions of IPC between physicians and nurses. Papers were retrieved through an iterative search strategy using computerized databases from Medicine and Nursing. The final corpus included 123 papers.
Results
We identified two discourses of IPC. The utilitarian discourse reflects positivism, constructing IPC as a tool for improving healthcare outcomes. The emancipatory discourse, influenced by liberation movements, constructs IPC as a tool for liberating nurses from medical dominance. Each discourse gives rise to unique objects and practices. The relationship between the discourses is neither developmental nor a simple binary opposition.
Conclusion
The presence of two dominant discourses of IPC may provide insight into the difficulties inherent in implementing IPC initiatives. Educational programs should consider whether and in what ways these discourses may underpin or complicate their curricular and assessment efforts.