After reading the latest version of IPEC’s (Interprofessional Education Collaborative) Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice I was ignited with inspiration about what the future big picture of Sacred Dunes Integrative Health would look like. This handbook is essentially a playbook for strategizing how different professions would collaborate to enhance a patient's overall outcomes, by coordinating competencies of values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication and teamwork. (IPEC, 2016)
I currently enjoy working with referring practitioners of multiple disciplines outside of my clinic and within my clinic. As a business owner who intends to house several disciplines under one roof in the future, I was particularly drawn to Competency 1 - Values and Ethics and Competency 4 - Teams and Teamwork.
Values, ethics and integrity have always been a top priority when it comes to my modus operandi regarding patient care, my referring physicians and my employees. I take great pride in always holding myself and others accountable to work ethically. Specifically addressing values and ethics in interprofessional care, I will ensure my patients and staff thoroughly understand their medical privacy through HIPAA, and have the correct documentation signed by patients to share their health information with another medical professional outside of Sacred Dunes.
When reflecting on teams and teamwork it makes one think of the Journal of Alternative and Complimentary Medicine’s article Interdisciplinary Relationship Models for Complementary and Integrative Health: Perspectives of Chinese Medicine Practitioners in the United States. Here acupuncture doctoral students researched and presented feedback on the difference between Eastern and Western physicians working in either opposition, integration or pluralism. This article revealed that most acupuncturists were either taught in medical school, opposition which is essentially that acupuncturists are separate and work outside of western medical models or integration within their practices. Pluralism was a new idea that concluded the most popular format for how these particular acupuncturists would like to work in an interprofessional setting.
Pluralism, in which distinct health care models co-exist in parallel, is presented as a preferable model because it encourages cooperation, research and open communication and respect between practitioners despite possible honest disagreement, and preserves the integrity of each of the treatment systems involved. (Anderson et al., 2018)
I was new to the idea of pluralism. My business is named Sacred Dunes Integrative Health, but after reviewing this research article as well as IPEC’s competencies on teamwork I now envision a future of both eastern and functional, holistic, western nurses and physicians working together as a team in a pluralistic way. Meaning, the patient ultimately maintains their sovereignty, making their decisions regarding who and what types of care my clinic offers, and then the team will liaise to discuss how they will address the case and have an open ended communication on progress and outcomes that can be navigated along the way. This differs from the true definition of integrative where for example a NP or MD would order or prescribe a specific treatment from an acupuncturist, massage or yoga therapist within the clinic. Within the pluralist setting each practitioner is autonomous and has a unique relationship with the patient while simultaneously working together with others.
References
Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative practice: 2016 update. Interprofessional Education Collaborative.
The Journal of Alternative and Complementary Medicine, (2018) Interdisciplinary Relationship Models for Complementary and Integrative Health: Perspectives of Chinese Medicine Practitioners in the United States. Anderson, B. J., Jurawanichkul, S., Kligler, B. E., Marantz, P. R., Evans, R. Volume 00, Number 00, pp. 1-8 Mary Ann Liebert, Inc.