Seminar 4: Working With Professionals Around You: Team Communication and Interdisciplinary Respect

Goal: Residents will be able to teach and work with professionals around them

Objectives: By the end of this session, the resident will:

Cognitive Objectives

1.  Effectively and efficiently be able to transmit key patient care information to a colleague

2.  Identify a colleague’s possible missteps without betraying your concerns

3.  Be able to communicate your shared responsibility and willingness to help

4.  Understand your role as a leader of a care team

Skills Objectives

1.  Listen effectively without interrupting a colleague who is communicating patient information

2.  Understand information from a colleague is of no value in achieving diagnosis or delivering treatment

3.  Be non-judgmental concerning medical errors or complications

4.  Collaborate with a colleague in identifying the next phase of a patient’s evaluation/treatment

5.  Effectively lead a care team with significant patient responsibility

Affective Objectives

1.  Communicate respect for a colleague’s hard work as you assume overall patient responsibility going forward


Session Outline

  1. Review Goals and Objectives
  2. Listen to a reenacted trigger tape of the OSCE Case
  3. Review sources of conflict and discuss how to manage the discussion process
  4. Review telephone skills
  5. Role Play with residents
  6. Take-Home Points


Relevant Literature

Fisher and Ury. Getting to Yes: Negotiating Agreement Without Giving In. New York: Penguin Books, 1991.

In this classic text, Fisher and Ury describe their four principles for effective negotiation. They also describe three common obstacles to negotiation and discuss ways to over come throes obstacles.

Orchard CA, Curran V, Kabene S. Creating a Culture for Interdisciplinary Collaborative Professional Practice. Med Educ Online. 2005;10:11.

The future of the health system is dependent on health professionals re-tooling the way we practice together. No longer can a multi-disciplinary model support the complex health needs of many clients nor can anyone - health profession have all the knowledge needed to provide total patient-centered care. However, our current education and health systems are structured around a multi-disciplinary model of practice with physicians or nurse practitioners as decision-makers and rarely are clients included in care planning. True interdisciplinary practice is defined as a partnership between a team of health professionals and a client in a participatory, collaborative and coordinated approach to shared decision-making around health issues, required a revamping of how future health professionals are educated and how they system can accommodate shared decision-making. A client-centered collaborative professional practice model is proposed in this paper as a means for fostering and facilitating the culture for this change.

O'Mara, K. Communication and conflict resolution in emergency medicine. Emergency medical clinics of North America. 17 (1999): 451-459.

Communication issues arise in emergency physician relationships with patients, nursing, and physician colleagues. It is important to acknowledge various perspectives in order to promote positive relationships and to avoid the social, medical, and legal hazards associated with miscommunication. This article outlines fundamental processes involved in these three important relationship groups.

Peterson M. Skills to Enhance Problem-based Learning. Med Educ Online [serial online] 1997;2,3. Available from: URL http://www.Med-Ed-Online.

Problem-based Learning (PBL) has become a popular method of instruction among educators in the health professions. Central to the effectiveness of PBL is the ability of students to work together to solve problems. When these abilities are lacking, PBL outcomes can be compromised. Since these skills have not been emphasized in public school or higher education, students are often forced to muddle through group processes in the effort to learn. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the interpersonal skills necessary to enhance PBL, and suggest how these skills can be improved and incorporated into the curriculum.

SPICE