Competency frameworks, nursing perspectives, and interdisciplinary collaborations for good patient care: Delineating boundaries

• Published in: Nursing philosophy Vol. 24; no. 1; pp. e12402 - n/a
• Main Authors: Zumstein‐Shaha, Maya, Grace, Pamela J.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: England Wiley Subscription Services, Inc 01.01.2023; John Wiley and Sons Inc
• Subjects: Clinical competence; Collaboration; competence frameworks; Cooperative Behavior; Delivery of Health Care; Humans; Interdisciplinary aspects; interprofessional; Interprofessional Relations; Medical profession; Nursing care; nursing education; nursing practice; Original; Patient Care; Patients; Quality of care; competence frameworks; nursing practice; interprofessional; nursing education
• DOI: 10.1111/nup.12402
• ISSN: 1466-7681; 1466-769X

To enhance patient care in the inevitable conditions of complexity that exist in contemporary healthcare, collaboration among healthcare professions is critical. While each profession necessarily has its own primary focus and perspective on the nature of human healthcare needs, these alone are insufficient for meeting the complex needs of patients (and potential patients). Persons are inevitably contextual entities, inseparable from their environments, and are subject to institutional and social barriers that can detract from good care or from accessing healthcare. These are some of the reasons behind current movements to develop competency frameworks that can enhance cross‐disciplinary communication and collaboration. No single profession can claim the big picture. Effective teamwork is essential and requires members of diverse professions to understand the nature of each other's knowledge, skills, roles, perspectives, and perceived responsibilities so that they are optimally utilized on behalf of patients and their families. Interdisciplinary approaches to care permit different aspects of a person's needs to be addressed seamlessly and facilitate the removal of obstacles by engaging the range of resources exemplified by the different professions. Additionally, collaborative efforts are needed to influence policy changes on behalf of individual and social good and to address root causes of poor health especially as these impact society's most vulnerable. Here, we explore both the benefits and the risks of an uncritical acceptance of competency frameworks as a way to enhance interdisciplinary communication. We highlight the importance of anchoring proposed competency domains in the reason for being of a given profession and exemplify one way this has been accomplished for advanced practice nursing. Additionally, we argue that having this mooring, permits integration of the various competencies that both enhances professional moral agency and facilitates interdisciplinary collaboration to further the mutual goals of the healthcare professions on behalf of quality patient care.