Inter-Professional Collaboration in Health Care: A Reflective Account

This essay provides a reflective account of the experience of working in an inter-professional learning set and use the Gibb’s model of reflection as a tool to evaluate the experience and identify important learning from the activity. The essay discusses the importance of inter-professional collaboration in health care, the desirable attributes for a health care staff to work as an inter-professional team, and the components of a team work in contemporary health services. The essay also evaluates the experience of working in an inter-professional learning set using the Tuckman’s theory of team development and the Belbin’s team role theory. The essay concludes with an action plan to develop team work skills.

Running head: NURSING
Nursing
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
According to the World Health Organization, learning about inter-professional
collaboration (IPC) is essential for health care students to work more effectively as a team and
positively influence patient outcome. Patients needs comprise both physical and psychosocial
needs and staffs multiple discipline works to address patient needs. IPC has been found to
influence patient outcome, improve the quality of care and reduce health care cost. Health care
makers recognize inter-professional collaboration as an essential step to prevent patient safety
issues and efficiently manage health care resource (Reeves et al. 2017). For a health care staff to
work as an inter-professional team, it is necessary that they possess a number of desirable
attributes like trust and mutual respect. Authentic leaders can play a role in developing positive
perceptions related to IPC among nurse practitioners or other staffs (Regan, Laschinger and
Wong, 2016). The goal of IPC is realized by working as a time and applying underlying
principles and core values related to team work in health care practice. Shared goals, clear roles,
effective communication style, constructive feedback and leadership are important components
of a team work in contemporary health services. Experience related to working in a team-based
task also helps in professional learning (Babiker et al. 2014).
The main purpose of this essay is to provide a reflective account of the experience of
working in an inter-professional learning set and use the Gibb’s model of reflection as a tool to
evaluate the experience and identify important learning from the activity. In line with the Gibb’s
reflective model, I will use the steps of description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and
action plan to define the experience of working as a team. The reflection gives idea regarding
strength and weakness of approach taken to engage in inter-professional task and future action
plan to develop team work skills.

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Description:
I am going to reflect on my experience of working in an inter-professional learning set,
where we were given the work to develop a presentation that gives information related to service
user perspectives and the role of health and social care professionals. We were a total of six
members and out team leader assembled us together to explain the main purpose of inter-
professional collaboration. Each of us were given a scenario and asked to reflects on the event
and suggest possible actions taken in similar situations in the wider context of health and social
care in the UK. Each members had to provide their part of the presentation within 5 days and we
were also asked to report on the progress of the task each day. Our team leader has instructed us
that the presentation should focus on patient centred care and evaluating the case study from
service user perspective. As this required assessment from different angles, multidisciplinary
collaboration was essential to complete the task in effective manner. The six members included
in our team were from different specialities and the leader expected to utilize the skill set and
knowledge of each member to develop an informative and innovative presentation. Green and
Johnson (2015) explain that collaboration works best when member with diverse speciality are
present and when creativity and innovation is desired as the final outcome.
Our leader was very enthusiastic about the project and he utilized the Tuckman’s theory
of team development as a framework to slowly build the team and prepare them to deliver a
professional and unique work. While building a team for inter-professional practice, leadership
style and nature of leadership has significant impact on the followers. In case of authentic
leadership, the leader assumes all responsibility and they just impose their decisions to the
subordinate (Lussier and Achua, 2015). In contrast, authentic leadership is a genuine and ethical
form of leadership and it is characterized by self-awareness, openness and clarity behaviours.

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Authentic leaders disclose the personal values and expectation to the follower and they are open
to take input from others (Wang et al. 2014). There are also examples of transformative leaders
who play a role in motivating team members and initiating change in organization or a group
(Jones and Phillips 2016). The action, personal values and attributes of our team leader matches
with that of authentic leadership style. He worked to maintain positive psychological state, which
are conducive to their performance and took team member’s input to complete the inter-
professional learning set.
Authentic leaders are one who are known for their openness and they are very focused on
the results. They have clear mission and they work accordingly to influence team members. In
line with these attributes, our leader defined goals and expectations to the team member during at
the first meeting. This meeting can be regarded as the forming stage of team development
according to the Tuckman’s theory. Tuckman’s theory provides a foundation for effective team
work and it is based on the assumption that a team do not starts functioning effectively from the
start. In addition, it develops as a team after adapting strategies to brain storm and adopt best
practice related to an activity (Natvig and Stark, 2016). During the forming stage, each member
was given different scenarios to work on. The first meeting was a relaxed session as the leader
aimed to openly express his views and ideas about the presentation to us. He suggested us
resource that we can use to determine the needs of services users based on individual scenario. I
refrained to ask any question at this time as I first wanted to study the scenario and research
myself and then inquire about any issue. Other members were also a bit confused at this stage
and only one or two members asked question related to the task. Hence, communication at this
stage took place in a very superficial manner.

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The next stage of team development is storming stage where conflicts is most likely to
occur. This occurred during our inter-professional work too as we had members from different
speciality. Two members were nursing students, two were from business and management field
and other two were from social care. The knowledge and ideas of each members differed as per
their speciality. We selected the scenario and each members has to discuss their work so that
overall the presentation seemed connected and not out of context based on individual task.
During this discussion, our leader had to deal with many arguments and disagreements. For
example, some was favouring physical well-being needs as a necessity for client, whereas others
were preparing the presentation from by focussing on social and financial needs. Our leader
intervened at this stage to state that as the main goal is to achieve patient-centred outcome,
identifying holistic needs is important. This was difficult for the team members as each member
has to pay extra effort to identify holistic care needs and services based on scenario. Few
members were irritated and wanted to leave the work in between. However, the leader personally
went to each members to give them valuable advice and ways to manage anxiety.
We moved to the norming stage when each member took personal responsibility to
provide an innovative and creative presentation. With the motivation and constructive feedback
of the team leader, our team members were much confident now. No one hesitated to ask
question and clear communication took place. This helped to achieve stability in inter-
professional work and individual skills set and experience of others was utilized in the best
possible manner. Our team possessed good personal value of honesty, creativity, curiosity and
respect (Valentine, Nembhard and Edmondson, 2015). By the time we reached performing stage,
all our resource and knowledge were utilized in the perfect manner to develop an innovative
presentation.

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Feelings:
Although we were successful in developing and completing an interprofessional learning
set, the preparation towards the collaboration was a chaotic and hectic experience. I was very
relaxed initially as I thought that my professional knowledge would be enough to complete the
work. However, one I received the feedback from the leader that instead of a single area focus,
we need to identify holistic needs, I began to panic. I was also disappointed because the leader
asked me to redo the few slides that I had prepared. However, this form of rejection did not
created a divide between me and leader. I would give credit for this to the authentic leadership
style of my team leader. Open communication with individual member and the team reduces all
forms of conflict. This helped to overcome team disagreement and conflict too (Chun and Choi
2014). His activities were in line with Belbin’s team role theory. The Belbin theory defines team
role as a tendency to interrelate with each others in a particular way to achieve team success
(Meslec and Curşeu 2015). My leader used this approach effectively to ensure that each
member’s work were interconnected to each other. We as a team also faced challenges because
there were some members who were not fully committed to deliver an excellent presentation.
However, as the leader had result oriented focus and he had good negotiating skills, this problem
was solved but after much time.
Evaluation:
After recollecting the whole experience of inter-professional work to develop a
presentation, I would say that our team had some strength as well as some strength. I would like
to discuss about positive aspects first. Firstly, the authentic leadership style was the strength of
our team work as authentic leadership played a role in clarifying roles, motivating team members

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and maintaining conformity in the team. Authentic leadership style played a role in transforming
professional skills and values of each members and developing an effective team. As a team is
main organizational building block that tackles complex and new challenges, having an effective
and productive team is important. Authentic leadership shows promise in achieving follower
commitment and eliminating team failure. They are self-aware, have moral perspective and
balance processing of information to promote relational transparency. Similar to these attributes,
my leader’s action of motivating team member’s and increasing their commitment helped to
achieve positive outcomes. Relational transparency also played a role in instilling positive team
based values in all members (Renlund, 2017). The leader utilized the principles of team based
health care and values to achieve the expected results.
Open communication process and constructive feedback played a role in improving
performance and managing conflicts. This impact of leader’s position and his communication
and interpersonal skill was significant. The stage of confusion and chaos was resolved by means
of open communication styles (Sexton and Orchard, 2016). For example, when the leader refused
mine and many other member’s idea as they were not fulfilling the requirements of patient-
centred conflict, some members developed resentment. However, acknowledge of the difficult
situation and the need for change pacified me and many other members. The leader’s approach
of coming to each of us helped us to get rid of disappointment and work again with new
motivaton. Expression of feeling and other challenges eventually helped to develop a confident
and highly engaged team. Furthermore, involvement of member from different field worked to
our advantage as this gave me the opportunity to learn new things related to management process
in social care and financial aspects of care giving. Effective conflict resolution enhance team
performance and this supported me to professional develop in practice (Vandergoot et al. 2018).

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The negative point was poor commitment and motivation of some staff members. Although this
was resolved, however delay in receiving prompt response from all made the inter-professional
work very hectic at the last stage.
Analysis:
An analysis of the working experience suggests that all members of the team were able to
successfully recognise their roles and responsibilities in relation to effective collaboration, with
the aim of delivering patient-centred care. The teamwork experience was successful owing to the
fact that it was based in one of the most influential theories postulated by Tuckman. During the
initial stages, all possible efforts were taken to focus on the several levels of forming, storming,
and norming, performing and adjourning (Raes et al. 2015). The fact that all of us met each other
to learn about individual tasks that were expected of us, based on our professional roles, was an
appropriate step in the activity. Conducting the forming stage ensured that all of the team
members were well aware of their strengths and weaknesses, which in turn facilitated us to
evaluate how well we fitted in with others (Seck and Helton 2014). The team leader provided
necessary support during this stage and provided a basic structure and direction for the entire
team that helped us to identify our intended visions. Research evidences state that providing a
clear explanation of the objectives and goals help to ensure that all team members are well aware
of their roles, thereby leading the team successfully through the succeeding stages (Wang and
Hsieh 2013).
Certain problems arose during the storming stage due to certain interpersonal issues that
resulted in polarisation. Such instances of polarisation due to differences in the ideas most often
lead to disagreements, and create challenging opportunities for the leader. However, the team

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leader took an authentic approach to his leadership where he emphasised on enhancing the
overall teamwork by valuing and considering the inputs of all team members. This can be
considered as a good strategy since, authentic leadership is a direct manifestation of self-
actualisation of individuals, being aware of their limitations, strengths and emotions (Azanza,
Moriano and Molero 2013). Furthermore, this authentic leadership also helped in promoting
openness in the team work and built a trust, which provided us great support and helped us to
improve our performance. Our leader emphasised on the need of caring for people in an ethical
way, over market and profit. This form of leadership acts as a boost and enhances several distinct
qualities namely, relational transparency, internalised moral perspective and balanced
processing. Thus, the authentic leadership style demonstrated by our team leader provided the
scope for constructive feedback, interpersonal communication and we became close with most of
the team members, at the end of the project (Nichols and Erakovich 2013). The team work can
also be explained as an effective approach based on its consistency with John Adair’s leadership
theory, which elaborated on the fact that tasks can only be accomplished by a team and not by
individuals alone.
The fact that our leader provided equal value to each of our thoughts and ideas on inter-
professional collaboration, in relation to patient centred care, was established by the his belief
that a team is only capable of achieving excellent task performance, upon full development of all
team members (Zulch 2014). Moreover, the team leader also emphasised on the continuous need
of challenging and motivating all team members. An effective team leader gas to balance the
aforementioned three elements of a team functioning. This is in accordance to Adair’s model of
leadership and boosted our morale, thereby resolving conflicts and enhancing our overall
performance (Black 2015). Belbin further stated that a team with diverse workforce is capable of

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utilising the strength and weakness of all, which in turn results in an advancement of the group.
According to the theory, gaining a clear understanding of the role within a team assists in
developing the strengths and also improves the contribution to the overall performance of the
team (Senaratne and Gunawardane 2015).
Presence of similar styles of personal qualities and behaviour might often result in a
disruption in the balance of a team. Furthermore, if the team members are found to possess
similar weaknesses, they might develop a tendency to compete for the responsibilities and tasks,
which best suit the natural styles. Owing to the fact that our team leader adopted an authentic
approach, no such conflicts arose in the tenure of the team work. Each one of us were given the
complete scope of recognising the talents and drawbacks, unique to ourselves, which helped in
avoiding all kinds of turmoil. Thus, the Belbin’s team theory model was appropriately put into
effect by the leader to ensure coverage of all team roles. Adoption of the model also allowed the
team leader to address the potential behavioural weaknesses and tensions among all team
members (Batenburg, van Walbeek and in der Maur 2013).
Although the leader took efforts in managing the conformity between members, efforts
could have been taken to take risky shifts that would result in making daring decisions in the
group, for the betterment of the service users. We adopted the conventional approaches of inter-
professional collaboration to provide optimal care services for the patients. However, taking
shared risk decisions about healthcare approaches would result in group polarisation and might
have resulted in formulation of new health strategies. Furthermore, increasing the team size
could also have allowed emergence of different roles that would have influenced the team
operation for better outcomes.

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Conclusion:
Thus, it can be concluded that team work is the best way for maximising efficiency,
productivity and creativity. However, it is imperative to the role of effective leaders to keep the
team members motivated for allowing the latter to achieve their full potential. Developing an
authentic leadership approach and motivating us was the best strategy that our team leader
adopted, which in turn helped us to overcome challenges and produce high quality work, while
engaging in effective interaction with the fellow team mates. The experience was an enriching
one as it inculcated in us the core team values of relationship, honesty, profitability, teamwork
and passion. Appropriate identification of these team values guided us in our decisions and
underpinned the efforts of the entire team. Furthermore, this team work helped us to recognise
inter-professional collaboration as the primary practice for approaching patient care from a team
perspective and helped us to understand that a range of health disciplines should effectively work
together for improving patient outcomes.
Action Plan:
With this experience, I have learned about the skills to develop an effective team and
nurture a novice member to a confident and contributing team member. In future, my action plan
is to use the SMART framework to clearly define goals. As inter-professional team work
requires good communication skills, I aim to develop my interpersonal communication skill so
that I can save time and reduce chances of conflict or errors during inter-professional
collaboration. Building team spirit is a very complex task. To take on the leadership role in the
future, my action plan is to learn about motivational theories and ways to apply them in different
situation.

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Essay conclusion:
The essay gave a reflective insight into my experience of working in an inter-professional
learning. To conclude, it can be said that the leadership style and presence of values and
principles related to team work is crucial to maintain team dynamics and achieve desired
outcome. The role of leaders, open communication process, mutual trust, creativity, conflict
management and shared decision are some important elements of inter-professional team work.
Good amalgamation all these factors helped our team to achieve the desired result. I have gained
valuable experience related to the way to work in a team and use constructive feedback to
promote professional development. For student entering health care practice, gaining such
experience is important so that they can easily translate the values of team based care in actual
health and social care setting.

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