Working on working together. A systematic review on how healthcare professionals contribute to interprofessional collaboration

Professionals in healthcare are increasingly encouraged to work together. This has acted as a catalyst for research on interprofessional collaboration. Authors suggest developing interprofessional collaboration is not just the job of managers and policy makers; it also requires active contributions of professionals. Empirical understanding of whether professionals make such contributions and if so, how and why, remains fragmented. This systematic review of 64 studies from the past 20 years shows there is considerable evidence for professionals actively contributing to interprofessional collaboration. Although the evidence is limited, we can show they do so in three distinct ways: by <i>bridging</i> professional, social, physical and task-related <i>gaps</i>, by <i>negotiating overlaps</i> in roles and tasks, and by <i>creating spaces</i> to be able to do so. Professionals from different professions seem to make different contributions. Moreover, differences exist between collaborative settings and healthcare subsectors. We conclude by proposing a research agenda to advance our understanding of these contributions in theoretical, methodological and empirical ways.

医疗保健领域的专业人员愈发受到协作共事的倡导，这一趋势成为推动跨专业协作（interprofessional collaboration）研究发展的催化剂。有学者指出，推进跨专业协作并非仅为管理者与政策制定者的职责，同样需要各专业人员的积极参与。当前学界对于专业人员是否会作出此类贡献、若作出贡献则其方式与动因为何的实证认知，仍处于碎片化状态。本研究对过去20年间的64项相关研究开展系统综述（systematic review），结果显示已有大量实证证据表明专业人员会积极投身跨专业协作。尽管现有证据仍有局限，但本研究证实专业人员主要通过三种截然不同的方式参与协作：一是弥合（bridging）专业、社交、物理层面与任务相关的鸿沟（gaps），二是协商（negotiating）角色与任务间的重叠领域（overlaps），三是创设（creating spaces）可供开展协作的空间。来自不同专业领域的人员，其所作出的贡献存在显著差异。此外，不同协作场景与医疗保健细分领域之间也存在明显差异。本研究最后提出一项研究议程，以期从理论、方法论与实证层面深化学界对上述贡献模式的认知。