Learning Objectives
Establish the context of interprofessional practice and identify the need for interprofessional education (IPE).
Define what is meant by a ‘profession’, identify common perceptions of different disciplines, their value positions, and ethical foundations.
Explore interprofessional ethics education and the need for ethical literacy within the professions.
Negotiating to work together
• Different professionals who work together in teams must learn to negotiate and understand three important elements:
(i) Principles - guidelines for behaviour
(ii) Structures - establish forms of knowledge and patterns of behaviour o
(iii) Processes - how things are done
• It is common for us to build up stereotypes of what we think different professions areabout, and popular media largely contributes to these stereotypes
• Stereotypes can be carried along and can cause a degree of confusion if they are skewed or inaccurate
• One of the common perceptions of social workers, as an example, is that they are either ‘bleeding heart do-gooders’ or ‘Rottweilers’ who snatch children away
from their families
• The media has largely contributed to these quite inaccurate public perceptions
• A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special
knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education, and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply
this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others
- A code of ethics governs the activities of each profession
- Codes require behaviour and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual
- Codes define and demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues
- These codes enforce by the profession and acknowledge and accept the community
Ethical Difference: Tensions Between the Professions
• Our socialised experiences, religious and spiritual beliefs, cultural backgrounds and political leanings will all influence our attitudes towards issues as diverse as
euthanasia, capital punishment, termination of pregnancy and reporting of mandatory reporting of child abuse
• Multidisciplinary teams, particularly in health care, have been in existence for many decades, and the difficulties of inherent in this model is due to professional
differences, status and hierarchy are well documented
• Organisational structures and culture can promote or impede constructive working relationships, which is why it is important to have a good understanding of
roles, responsibilities, duties and obligations, not just withing our own discipline but also in those of colleagues
• The most salient differences between professions relate to the substantive disciplines and knowledge informing professional education
• These disciplines broadly, the natural sciences (including biology), and the social science (including humanities)
• Differences include
- Concepts
- Theories and practices that are peculiar toa profession
- The extent to which professionals use technology as part of their helping repertoire
- The degree of visibility afforded to the interventions offered
• Differences between professions may also relate to the rigour with which their claims about their efficacy of intervention- problem, intervention, outcome- can
be assessed empirically
What Makes a Profession?
• Professionals ‘profess’ to hold knowledge and wisdom that gives them the edge in their territory
• A professional strives to have the knowledge to be ‘right’, and with this often comes arrogance that if one is right, then others have to be wrong
• Many longstanding professional’s rivalries have been based on this contention.
• In efforts to secure territory and status, professional disciplines generate their own knowledge, conduct their own research and promote their own evidence
base
• The public trusts that people who belong to this professional discipline will act with integrity
• The goal of every professional’s discipline to hold expertise to his or her field, to be sure of what he or she is doing and of the effectiveness of his or her
interventions, and to have good faith in outcomes
• When we work together, there is opportunity for scrutiny of the practice of others, which can lead to either respect for the work of others, or hostility and
MWT 120 - Social Work Theory Notes Page 1
, • When we work together, there is opportunity for scrutiny of the practice of others, which can lead to either respect for the work of others, or hostility and
tension if professional rivalry takes the upper hand
• Good management is needed to ensure that a workplace does not disintegrate into disharmony and develop what is often known as ‘toxic culture’
Professional ‘Sea Change’
• Professional can and do take place when a person decides that there could be different ways of viewing the world, and that these ways may make more
sense in terms of personal congruence
• People are increasingly moving through a number of qualifications, using previous study and experience to leapfrog into different careers
• Massive shifts towards online education appeal to mature-age workers, who aspire to new career paths that were previously not possible because of the
difficulty managing work and study together
• The positive side of this ‘sea-change’ movement is that the combinations of different disciplines add both breadth and depth to the professional workforce
• These career shifts build on and extend practical and theoretical knowledge, and also offer new perspectives in terms of values and ethics
• Moving from one discipline to another can provide excellent opportunities for sharing these different professional perspectives
Value Clashes Across the Professions
• Many people do not have good knowledge of the value foundations of professional disciplines other than their own, and have little respect of tolerance for
difference of opinion
• Value clashes impact negatively on workplace morale and create toxic cultures that are stressful, which in turn impacts in staff turnover
• The need for us to have more than a superficial understanding of other disciplines, and raises the question of how such learning should be attained
• Interprofessional context is now a feature of contemporary workplace and that, in order for professionals to work collaboratively in the best interests of
clients and services users, knowledge of one’s own discipline and also the discipline of coworkers in a basic requirement
Making the Case for Interprofessional Education (IPE)
• A commonly cited definition of IPE is that used by the Centre of Advancement of Interprofessional Education
- Interprofessional education occurs when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of
care
• A number of principles underlie IPE, and these are important for us to consider as they preserve the unequal place of discipline within the collaborative
learning environment
• IPE is about acknowledging but setting aside difference in power and status of different professions, presenting each profession positively and distinctively and
agreeing on ground rules
• The outcomes from IEP are:
- To enable each profession to improve its own practice to complement that of others
- To engender interprofessional capability and inform joint action to instigate change
- To engage with systemic knowledge generation and research with the ultimate aim of improving services to individuals, families and communities
Defining the Interprofessional Space
• Multidisciplinary team approaches utilise the skills and experience of individuals from different disciplines, with each discipline approaching the patient from
their own perspective
• This approach involves separate individual consultations
• These may occur in a ‘one-stop-shop’ fashion with all consultations occurring as part of a single appointment on a single day
• It is common for multidisciplinary teams to meet regularly, in the absence of the patient, to case conference findings and discuss future directions for the
patients’ care
• Multidisciplinary provide more knowledge and experience than disciplines operating in isolation
• Interdisciplinary team approaches integrate separate discipline approaches into a single consultation
• The patient-history taking, assessment, diagnosis, intervention and short- and longterm management goals are conducted by the team, together with the patient,
at the one time
• The patient is intimately involved in any discussions regarding their condition or prognosis and the plans about their care
• A common understanding and holistic view of all aspects of their patient’s care ensues, with the patient empowered to form art of the decision-making process,
including the setting of long- and short-term goals
• Individuals from different disciplines, as well as the patient them self, are encourage to question each other and explore alternate avenues, stepping out of the
discipline silos to work toward the best outcome for the patient
• Interprofessional ethics is about working together with others to reach a shared understanding of how of how we collectively maximise outcomes for people
• A psychological perspective on responses to a person suffering acute anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress may focus on interpersonal factors but would
MWT 120 - Social Work Theory Notes Page 2
Establish the context of interprofessional practice and identify the need for interprofessional education (IPE).
Define what is meant by a ‘profession’, identify common perceptions of different disciplines, their value positions, and ethical foundations.
Explore interprofessional ethics education and the need for ethical literacy within the professions.
Negotiating to work together
• Different professionals who work together in teams must learn to negotiate and understand three important elements:
(i) Principles - guidelines for behaviour
(ii) Structures - establish forms of knowledge and patterns of behaviour o
(iii) Processes - how things are done
• It is common for us to build up stereotypes of what we think different professions areabout, and popular media largely contributes to these stereotypes
• Stereotypes can be carried along and can cause a degree of confusion if they are skewed or inaccurate
• One of the common perceptions of social workers, as an example, is that they are either ‘bleeding heart do-gooders’ or ‘Rottweilers’ who snatch children away
from their families
• The media has largely contributed to these quite inaccurate public perceptions
• A disciplined group of individuals who adhere to ethical standards and hold themselves out as, and are accepted by the public as possessing special
knowledge and skills in a widely recognised body of learning derived from research, education, and training at a high level, and who are prepared to apply
this knowledge and exercise these skills in the interest of others
- A code of ethics governs the activities of each profession
- Codes require behaviour and practice beyond the personal moral obligations of an individual
- Codes define and demand high standards of behaviour in respect to the services provided to the public and in dealing with professional colleagues
- These codes enforce by the profession and acknowledge and accept the community
Ethical Difference: Tensions Between the Professions
• Our socialised experiences, religious and spiritual beliefs, cultural backgrounds and political leanings will all influence our attitudes towards issues as diverse as
euthanasia, capital punishment, termination of pregnancy and reporting of mandatory reporting of child abuse
• Multidisciplinary teams, particularly in health care, have been in existence for many decades, and the difficulties of inherent in this model is due to professional
differences, status and hierarchy are well documented
• Organisational structures and culture can promote or impede constructive working relationships, which is why it is important to have a good understanding of
roles, responsibilities, duties and obligations, not just withing our own discipline but also in those of colleagues
• The most salient differences between professions relate to the substantive disciplines and knowledge informing professional education
• These disciplines broadly, the natural sciences (including biology), and the social science (including humanities)
• Differences include
- Concepts
- Theories and practices that are peculiar toa profession
- The extent to which professionals use technology as part of their helping repertoire
- The degree of visibility afforded to the interventions offered
• Differences between professions may also relate to the rigour with which their claims about their efficacy of intervention- problem, intervention, outcome- can
be assessed empirically
What Makes a Profession?
• Professionals ‘profess’ to hold knowledge and wisdom that gives them the edge in their territory
• A professional strives to have the knowledge to be ‘right’, and with this often comes arrogance that if one is right, then others have to be wrong
• Many longstanding professional’s rivalries have been based on this contention.
• In efforts to secure territory and status, professional disciplines generate their own knowledge, conduct their own research and promote their own evidence
base
• The public trusts that people who belong to this professional discipline will act with integrity
• The goal of every professional’s discipline to hold expertise to his or her field, to be sure of what he or she is doing and of the effectiveness of his or her
interventions, and to have good faith in outcomes
• When we work together, there is opportunity for scrutiny of the practice of others, which can lead to either respect for the work of others, or hostility and
MWT 120 - Social Work Theory Notes Page 1
, • When we work together, there is opportunity for scrutiny of the practice of others, which can lead to either respect for the work of others, or hostility and
tension if professional rivalry takes the upper hand
• Good management is needed to ensure that a workplace does not disintegrate into disharmony and develop what is often known as ‘toxic culture’
Professional ‘Sea Change’
• Professional can and do take place when a person decides that there could be different ways of viewing the world, and that these ways may make more
sense in terms of personal congruence
• People are increasingly moving through a number of qualifications, using previous study and experience to leapfrog into different careers
• Massive shifts towards online education appeal to mature-age workers, who aspire to new career paths that were previously not possible because of the
difficulty managing work and study together
• The positive side of this ‘sea-change’ movement is that the combinations of different disciplines add both breadth and depth to the professional workforce
• These career shifts build on and extend practical and theoretical knowledge, and also offer new perspectives in terms of values and ethics
• Moving from one discipline to another can provide excellent opportunities for sharing these different professional perspectives
Value Clashes Across the Professions
• Many people do not have good knowledge of the value foundations of professional disciplines other than their own, and have little respect of tolerance for
difference of opinion
• Value clashes impact negatively on workplace morale and create toxic cultures that are stressful, which in turn impacts in staff turnover
• The need for us to have more than a superficial understanding of other disciplines, and raises the question of how such learning should be attained
• Interprofessional context is now a feature of contemporary workplace and that, in order for professionals to work collaboratively in the best interests of
clients and services users, knowledge of one’s own discipline and also the discipline of coworkers in a basic requirement
Making the Case for Interprofessional Education (IPE)
• A commonly cited definition of IPE is that used by the Centre of Advancement of Interprofessional Education
- Interprofessional education occurs when two or more professions learn with, from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of
care
• A number of principles underlie IPE, and these are important for us to consider as they preserve the unequal place of discipline within the collaborative
learning environment
• IPE is about acknowledging but setting aside difference in power and status of different professions, presenting each profession positively and distinctively and
agreeing on ground rules
• The outcomes from IEP are:
- To enable each profession to improve its own practice to complement that of others
- To engender interprofessional capability and inform joint action to instigate change
- To engage with systemic knowledge generation and research with the ultimate aim of improving services to individuals, families and communities
Defining the Interprofessional Space
• Multidisciplinary team approaches utilise the skills and experience of individuals from different disciplines, with each discipline approaching the patient from
their own perspective
• This approach involves separate individual consultations
• These may occur in a ‘one-stop-shop’ fashion with all consultations occurring as part of a single appointment on a single day
• It is common for multidisciplinary teams to meet regularly, in the absence of the patient, to case conference findings and discuss future directions for the
patients’ care
• Multidisciplinary provide more knowledge and experience than disciplines operating in isolation
• Interdisciplinary team approaches integrate separate discipline approaches into a single consultation
• The patient-history taking, assessment, diagnosis, intervention and short- and longterm management goals are conducted by the team, together with the patient,
at the one time
• The patient is intimately involved in any discussions regarding their condition or prognosis and the plans about their care
• A common understanding and holistic view of all aspects of their patient’s care ensues, with the patient empowered to form art of the decision-making process,
including the setting of long- and short-term goals
• Individuals from different disciplines, as well as the patient them self, are encourage to question each other and explore alternate avenues, stepping out of the
discipline silos to work toward the best outcome for the patient
• Interprofessional ethics is about working together with others to reach a shared understanding of how of how we collectively maximise outcomes for people
• A psychological perspective on responses to a person suffering acute anxiety as a result of post-traumatic stress may focus on interpersonal factors but would
MWT 120 - Social Work Theory Notes Page 2
