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Abstract
The increase in prevalence of long-term conditions in Western societies, with the
subsequent need for non-acute quality patient healthcare, has brought the issue of
collaboration between health professionals to the fore. Within primary care, it has
been suggested that multidisciplinary teamworking is essential to develop an integrated
approach to promoting and maintaining the health of the population whilst improving
service effectiveness. Although it is becoming widely accepted that no single discipline
can provide complete care for patients with a long-term condition, in practice, interprofessional
working is not always achieved.
This review aimed to explore the factors that inhibit or facilitate interprofessional
teamworking in primary and community care settings, in order to inform development
of multidisciplinary working at the turn of the century.
A comprehensive search of the literature was undertaken using a variety of approaches
to identify appropriate literature for inclusion in the study. The selected articles
used both qualitative and quantitative research methods.
Following a thematic analysis of the literature, two main themes emerged that had
an impact on interprofessional teamworking: team structure and team processes. Within
these two themes, six categories were identified: team premises; team size and composition;
organisational support; team meetings; clear goals and objectives; and audit. The
complex nature of interprofessional teamworking in primary care meant that despite
teamwork being an efficient and productive way of achieving goals and results, several
barriers exist that hinder its potential from becoming fully exploited; implications
and recommendations for practice are discussed.
These findings can inform development of current best practice, although further research
needs to be conducted into multidisciplinary teamworking at both the team and organisation
level, to ensure that enhancement and maintenance of teamwork leads to an improved
quality of healthcare provision.