Interprofessional collaboration in health care

Improved health care collaboration has been cited as a key strategy for health care reform.1,2 Collaboration in health care has been shown to improve patient outcomes such as reducing preventable adverse drug reactions,3,4 decreasing morbidity and mortality rates5,6 and optimizing medication dosages.7 Teamwork has also been shown to provide benefits to health care providers, including reducing extra work4 and increasing job satisfaction.8 As a fourth-year pharmacy student at the University of Saskatchewan (BB), I have noticed this shift becoming increasingly evident in our education, with the incorporation of interprofessional-based learning activities and relocation to a recently built health sciences building. Having played competitive hockey for about 15 years, I have been on both highly successful teams that went on to win championships, as well as teams that were unable to function effectively. What was it about these teams that contributed to our successes or failures? Moreover, can these lessons be extrapolated to health care teams? Characteristics have been identified in both sports and health care that may influence team success.2,9 Examples include accountability, communication, leadership, discipline, coordination, having a clear purpose and having a strategy in place. While a cooking recipe may consist of many ingredients (some perhaps to add flavour; others for consistency), a few ingredients will always remain essential. Reflecting on my experiences as an athlete and as a pharmacy student, 5 key ingredients seem necessary for success in a collaborative team (Table 1). Table 1 Five essential ingredients for team success