Factors influencing interprofessional collaboration in long-term care from a multidisciplinary perspective: a case study approach

ABSTRACT

Systematic assessments of interprofessional collaboration barriers and enablers in long-term care settings are critical for delivering person-centered healthcare. However, research on factors influencing interprofessional collaboration in long-term care settings is limited. For this study, 65 healthcare professionals across multiple facilities experienced in long-term care in Japan participated in online focus group discussions and individual interviews to discuss cases. The qualitative data were analyzed using qualitative content analysis. Seven themes emerged: coordination, the need for care manager training, hierarchy among healthcare professionals, specialization but not the mind-set of overspecialization, casual conversations, electronic group communication tools, and excessive fear of personal information protection. These findings highlight the need to develop coordinator roles and for interprofessional education on the proper approach to personal information protection laws. Furthermore, daily casual conversations, the use of online platforms, and the prevention of patients being left behind due to overspecialization are required.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional collaboration (interdisciplinary collaboration)
• long-term care
• qualitative research
• focus group discussion
• individual interview
• barrier
• influencing factor
• personal information protection

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to all the participants for the time and energy they devoted to this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Author contribution

Hiroshi Yatsuya (HY), Yoshihisa Hirakawa (YH), and Yuko Yoshida (YY) conceived the idea of the study. YH and YY significantly contributed to data analysis and interpretation of the results. YY and YH drafted the original manuscript. HY and YH supervised the execution of this study. All authors reviewed the manuscript draft and revised it critically on intellectual content. All authors approved the final version of the manuscript to be published.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by a Health and Labor Sciences Research Grant [grant number 21GB1001].