Understanding Interprofessional Relationships within a stroke team.
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Understanding the Meanings of Interprofessional Relationships within a Stroke Care Multidisciplinary Team.
IRAS ID
194431
Contact name
Laura Park
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Northumbria University
Clinicaltrials.gov Identifier
DHCPark100815, University Ethics Committee Number
Duration of Study in the UK
4 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Globally, teamwork in healthcare is regarded invaluable, as effective teamwork is the key to enhancing patient outcomes (Price, Doucet, & Hall, 2014). According to Bajnok, Puddester, MacDonald, Archibald and Kuhl (2012), effective teamwork is the basis for accomplishing an successful inter professional (IP) practice. IP working has become fundamental to the delivery of healthcare (Sims, Hewitt, & Harris, 2015); and is now an undisputed component of evidence based stroke care (Hewitt et al., 2014). Achieving lP collaboration that is successful has been found to be more complex than simply assigning any staff members to work together (Meyer, 2011).
Zwarenstein and Reeves (2002) consider relationships and meaningful interpersonal interactions to be the heart of teamwork. The workplace is regarded as a key site for the developmet of relationships, due to relationships forming from regular social contact (Argle & Henderson, 1985). Cott (1998) suggests that at work a network of different relationships develop between team members, with each different relationship coming with its own sets of rules and interactions (Argyle & Henderson, 1985). According to Baxter and Brumfit (2008), professionals within stroke care teams form allegiances, which vary between members depending on how much contact they have with the team. Jones (2006) disputes this, finding that caring for patients was the only reason MDT professionals worked amicably. D’amour et al. (2005), however, suggests that IP teams will not successfully collaborate if their efforts are based only on benefiting the patient.
Therefore, this study aims to explore the meanings that professionals within a stroke care MDT attach to their day-to-day working relationships with others. This will be achieved by taking an constructivist grounded theory approach in which a range of interactions and activities will be first observed from a range of MDT professionals within the stroke care department. Observational sessions will last up to four hours. Healthcare professionals will then be individually interviewed; ideally individual interview will take place no longer then a few days after, so that the process of collecting and analysing data works concurrently. To be eligible all potential participants must be part of a stroke multidisciplinary team and be employed by the relevant trust. Data collection is aimed to be complete within one year.
Once completed the PhD will hopefully provide a theory of the IP relationships that exist within a stroke care MDT.REC name
East of England - Cambridge South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
16/EE/0020
Date of REC Opinion
2 Feb 2016
REC opinion
Further Information Favourable Opinion