Many challenges have evolved in the health care system that support the need for interprofessional collaboration. Over time, separate specialties and professions have been created to focus on specific aspects of patients’ health and care such that a single profession today cannot adequately meet all the complex needs of patients. To keep patients safe, health care professionals are tasked to work together as a team; however, it is clear through medical error rates, root cause analyses, and patient outcome research that breaches in quality health care are often due to poor communication within health care professional teams. Just as the significance of interprofessional practice has become apparent, the evidence that health care teams generally cannot figure out how to effectively work together has emerged as a major issue. Teamwork failures stem from a variety of systemic gaps in our health care processes as well as fundamental human factors. Health care simulation is increasingly recognized as one potential vehicle for teaching interprofessional collaboration.
Co-location with:
