Inter-Professional Communication

Communication

According to the Health Care Professionals Council (HCPC) Standards of Proficiency of Operating Department Practitioners (2014, p.9) ODP’s must be able to communicate effectively and be able to demonstrate effective and appropriate verbal and non-verbal skills in communicating information, advice, instruction and professional opinion to service users and colleagues. O’toole and Gjyn (2012) suggest that communication is a mutual understanding where all parties are agreed that they share a common goal. The mutual understanding must be based on more than just words but a working relationship that is built on respect and trust (O’Toole & Gjyn, 2012, p. 14). Harmer’s report suggests that communication at certain points in Mrs Bromileys

However it is evident that this is not always the case in many healthcare providers, Berry (2007) cites Northouse and Northouse (1998) identifying three main problem areas including role stress, a lack of inter-professional understanding and autonomy struggles (Berry 2007, p.49). Role stress can occur when a person’s perception of a specific role, exceeds or undermines what is actually being achieved in that role (Chang, Hancock, Johnson, Daly & Jackson, 2005, p. 4). Lack of inter-professional understanding stems from traditional medical training that would have been very ‘profession based’ where different medical groups would have been educated separately with little chance to learn about other professionals roles, skill and responsibilities. This is now starting to change due to the introduction of inter-professional education (Berry 2007, pp. 48-49). The final problem highlighted by Northouse and Northouse (1998), autonomy struggles, refers to the freedom to be a more self-directed professional (Faculty of Health Studies, 2010). In general it is perceived that doctors have much more autonomy than ODP’s or nurses. Where differences are present, it is common for the more dominant profession to underestimate the competence or professionalism of the other healthcare roles, which can result in tension and miscommunication within the team (Berry, 2007,