Student programme – Healthcare professionals’ collaboration as a key to patient-centred care

Linked to EAHP Statements
Section 1 – Introductory Statements and Governance: Statement 1.1
Section 4 – Clinical Pharmacy Services: Statement 4.1
Section 5 – Patient Safety and Quality Assurance: Statements 5.1, 5.2
Section 6 – Education and Research: Statement 6.1

ACPE UAN: 0475-0000-21-031-L04-P. An application-based activity. 

Abstract
Patients’ needs have become more and more complex, requiring the collaboration of multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds together with patients, families, carers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care. Interprofessional collaboration is the key to avoiding errors attributed to poor communication and ineffective teamwork. However, due to the cultural differences that exist between the different professions making up the health workforce, collaboration is not always easy. To better prepare the future workforce, the development of interprofessional skills and collaborative practice should be part of every pharmacy students’ education.

Despite the benefits of interprofessional collaboration for patient-centred care, hospital pharmacists can encounter obstacles at their workplace. During this year’s student programme, the hospital pharmacists of tomorrow will explore the benefits and obstacles of collaborative work to promote understanding of the complementary skills of different healthcare professionals, exploring how any barriers can be overcome. Efforts to improve collaboration and the relationship of different professionals working in the hospital environment must focus on the strategic introduction of agreed changes in working practices as well as in the education and training of pharmacists. Collaboration with other hospital workers is seen as a key part of improving patient-centred healthcare.

Learning objectives
After the workshop, participants should be able to:
• explain the advantages and disadvantages of applying a patient-centred approach in the interprofessional collaboration;
• identify obstacles to interprofessional collaboration;
• solve problems that arise in relation to interprofessional collaboration.

Educational need addressed
Students need to become familiar with interprofessional collaboration and its added value which enables hospital pharmacists to deliver optimal patient-centred care together with other healthcare professionals.

Keywords: patient-centred care, hospital pharmacist, collaboration, pharmacy student, inter-professional collaborative practice, education, Collaborative Drug Therapy Management (CDTM).