TY - JOUR
T1 - Interprofessional, Interdisciplinary, or Multidisciplinary?
AU - Baggs, Judith Gedney
N1 - Funding Information:
Letters are welcome and encouraged. They should raise points of current interest in the care of critically ill or high acuity patients or address topics that previously have appeared in the American Journal of Critical Care (AJCC). Please be concise; letters are subject to editing for length and clarity. Include your name, credentials, title (optional), institutional affiliation, city and state, and phone number (for verification, not publication). Submit letters via the AJCC online manuscript submission system, at www.editorialmanager.com/ajcc. FINANCIAL DISCLOSURES None reported.
PY - 2022/1/1
Y1 - 2022/1/1
N2 - As a longtime researcher in interprofessional collaborative care and deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, I was dismayed by the imprecise use of language in the article by Colbenson et al.1 The title says "interprofessional," the first sentence of the abstract says "interdisciplinary," and the abstract also uses the word "multidisciplinary." These words have different meanings and are not interchangeable. The first implies collaborative interactions, the second is often used by physicians to imply physicians with different specialties interacting (eg, oncologist and pathologist), and the third simply means that persons from different professions are in the same space per- haps working in parallel, perhaps sequentially. Another term the authors use, "ICU [intensive care unit] teams," may or may not actually be working as teams, but the terms are not defined. The theme "interdisciplinary dynamics" is really about multidisciplinary interactions and is minimally described. If nurses feel devalued and not involved in decision-making, the dynamics are not interprofessional or even interdisciplinary.
AB - As a longtime researcher in interprofessional collaborative care and deputy editor-in-chief of the Journal of Interprofessional Care, I was dismayed by the imprecise use of language in the article by Colbenson et al.1 The title says "interprofessional," the first sentence of the abstract says "interdisciplinary," and the abstract also uses the word "multidisciplinary." These words have different meanings and are not interchangeable. The first implies collaborative interactions, the second is often used by physicians to imply physicians with different specialties interacting (eg, oncologist and pathologist), and the third simply means that persons from different professions are in the same space per- haps working in parallel, perhaps sequentially. Another term the authors use, "ICU [intensive care unit] teams," may or may not actually be working as teams, but the terms are not defined. The theme "interdisciplinary dynamics" is really about multidisciplinary interactions and is minimally described. If nurses feel devalued and not involved in decision-making, the dynamics are not interprofessional or even interdisciplinary.
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U2 - 10.4037/ajcc2022459
DO - 10.4037/ajcc2022459
M3 - Letter
C2 - 34972841
AN - SCOPUS:85123036345
SN - 1062-3264
VL - 31
SP - 7
JO - American Journal of Critical Care
JF - American Journal of Critical Care
IS - 1
ER -