Interdisciplinary Team Competencies Cheat Sheet (DRAFT) by [deleted]

Interd­isc­ipl­inary health care teams face challenges not normally encoun­tered by other uni-di­sci­plinary or non-health care teams. These challenges include sharing profes­sional roles and expertise, planning and decisi­on-­making, while delivering quality patient care within complex contexts.

Workforce re-str­uct­uring to meet these needs requires the interd­isc­ipl­inary teams to integrate changing organi­sat­ional values with new modes of service delivery. While these changes impact across healthcare as a whole, in certain sectors these organi­sat­ional challenges have evoked widespread debate, in particular primary care, rehabi­lit­ation, and care of the elderly. Of these, primary care is perceived to have the least likely level of success with interd­isc­ipl­inary team work. Indeed, some suggest that an interd­isc­ipl­inary culture may only be possible as new genera­tions of healthcare profes­sionals enter the workforce.

The need for interd­isc­ipl­inary team work is increasing as a result of a number of factors including:
1) An aging popula­tion with frail older people and larger numbers of patients with more complex needs associated with chronic diseases;
2) The increasing complexity of skills and knowledge required to provide compre­hensive care to patients;
3) Increasing specia­liz­ation within health profes­sions and a corres­ponding fragme­ntation of discip­linary knowledge resulting in no health care profes­sional is able to meet all the complex needs of their patients;
4) The current emphasis in many countries’ policy documents on multi-­pro­fes­sional team work and develo­pment of shared learning;
5) The pursuit of continuity of care within the movement towards continuous quality improv­ement (CQI)

1. Identifies a leader who establ­ishes a clear direction and vision for the team, while listening and providing support and superv­ision to the team members.
2. Incorp­orates a set of values that clearly provide direction for the team’s service provision; these values should be visible and consis­tently portrayed.
3. Demons­trates a team culture and interd­isc­ipl­inary atmosphere of trust where contri­butions are valued and consensus is fostered.
4. Ensures approp­riate processes and infras­tru­ctures are in place to uphold the vision of the service (for example, referral criteria, commun­ica­tions infras­tru­cture).
5. Provides quality patien­t-f­ocused services with documented outcomes; utilizes feedback to improve the quality of care.
6. Utilizes commun­ication strate­gies that promote intra-team commun­ica­tion, collab­orative decisi­on-­making and effective team processes.
7. Provides sufficient team staffing to integrate an approp­riate mix of skills, compet­encies, and person­alities to meet the needs of patients and enhance smooth functi­oning.
8. Facili­tates recrui­tment of staff who demons­trate interd­isc­ipl­inary compet­encies including team functi­oning, collab­orative leader­ship, commun­ica­tion, and sufficient profes­sional knowledge and experi­ence.
9. Promotes role interd­epe­nde­nce while respecting individual roles and autonomy.
10. Facili­tates personal develo­pment through approp­riate training, rewards, recogn­ition, and opport­unities for career develo­pment.