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This integrative review highlights the need to look critically at the body of research purported to investigate interprofessional collaboration in primary care settings and suggests the value of using direct observational methods to elucidate this. Direct observation of collaborative practice in everyday work settings holds promise as a method to better understand and articulate the complex phenomena of interprofessional collaboration, yet only a small number of studies to date have attempted to directly observe such practice. Despite methodological challenges, findings suggest that observation data may contribute in a unique way to the teamwork discourse, by identifying elements of interprofessional collaborative practice that are not so obvious to individuals when asked to self-report.