Healthcare teams that practice collaboratively enhance the delivery of person-centred care and improve patient and systems outcomes. Many organizations have adopted existing interprofessional frameworks that define the competencies of individual health professionals that are required to meet practice standards and advance interprofessional goals. However, to support the collective efforts of team members to deliver optimal care within complex hospital settings, healthcare organizations may benefit from adopting team-based competencies for interprofessional collaboration. The Sunnybrook framework for interprofessional team collaboration was intentionally created as a set of collective team competencies. The framework was developed using a comprehensive literature search and consensus building by a multi-stakeholder working group and supported by a broad consultation process that included patient representation, organizational development and leadership, and human resources. The six core competencies are actionable and include associated team behaviours that can be easily referenced by teams and widely implemented across the hospital.
Purpose of reviewGood communication is the cornerstone of interprofessional care teams providing optimized quality patient care. Over the last decade, advances in technology have provided tools to improve communication; however, opportunities still exist for innovation and implementation.
Recent findingsThe literature suggests that interprofessional education and assessment of team communication are fundamental in supporting collaborative care. The literature favours an interactive, team-based approach (e.g. simulation) to learning about communication, in which communication competencies and behaviours are practiced explicitly in an open, feedback-rich environment.
SummaryKey elements of excellence in communication are embedded in three priority recommendations: first, the team must adopt a practice strategy that leverages accessible and timely communication second, the team must be open to initial and ongoing training within the domain of 'effective communication' third, communication must be the cornerstone to producing a high-performing team that will provide the best care possible.
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