Resource Center

This Robert Wood Johnson Foundation report profiles the experiences of more than 20 hospitals and community health centers that utilize interprofessional collaboration to achieve better patient outcomes. The report, "Lessons From the Field: Promising Interprofessional Collaboration Practices," helps health care entities assess the potential benefits of interprofessional collaboration and offers a road map to implementing the approach.

The report details the experiences of health care organizations in advancing cooperation among physicians, nurses, nutritionists, psychologists, and other appropriate health professionals, from the planning stages through various phases of a patient’s treatment. The patient and the patient’s family are also considered part of the treatment team.

Approaches to establish a culture that embraces interprofessional collaboration include:

• Promote a culture that “puts patients first”;
• Demonstrate leadership commitment to collaboration among the various professions as an organizational priority;
• Create a level playing field among the varying professions, ensuring that each is valued to the full extent of their license;
• Use shared language and tools to promote effective communication across disciplines; and
• Train the different disciplines together.

The report describes these approaches in detail. Other health care organizations wishing to emulate this model can look to the report for practical tips, inspiration, and methods that have worked for others.

The video below highlights several of these approaches in more detail.

For more information on the report, please contact Melissa Blair: media@rwjf.org.