Collaboration and learning in teams of registered nurses and medical doctors: A qualitative descriptive study

Abstract

Patients with cancer are expected to call an oncological emergency unit when they are unable to manage symptoms of their disease and side effects from treatment at home. Responding to calls from patients with different problems in a team of registered nurses and medical doctors requires interprofessional collaboration and learning. Therefore, this study aimed to explore conditions for team-based collaboration and learning when responding to calls from patients diagnosed with cancer in a specific setting of an oncological emergency unit. Using a frame of qualitative description three focus groups with 16 healthcare professionals from an oncological emergency unit at a Danish University Hospital were conducted. The verbatim transcribed text was analyzed using content analysis, and reported according to the COREQ guidelines. Two main themes emerged: 1) ‘Availability – a precondition for learning and collaboration’ and 2) ‘Sense of responsibility and distribution of roles’. The study demonstrated that interprofessional collaboration and learning were affected by intra and interprofessional and contextual factors. In addition to an awareness of personal attitudes, the environment and the distribution of responsibility and roles as essential preconditions for accomplishing teamwork need to be explicitly articulated if the team-based learning and collaboration are to succeed.