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INTER-DISCIPLINARY FORUMS

• Phone: 254 716 424 448; 254 725 608 292 • Email: [email protected]

RESPONDING TO NEED FOR DEVELOPMENT AND OPTIMIZARION OF INTER-DISCIPLINARY AND

ORGANIZATIONAL RELATION IN SUSTAINABLE HEALTH AND PATIENT CENTERED CARE

Excerpt

According to Wheelan (2013), shared education is part of

what defines a team:

“Groups with goals and tasks that require continuous

learning are the most successful groups. In fact, the best

thing about a group with such goals and tasks is that its

members will learn from each other and will seek out

information to learn more about how to proceed. If a

group’s goals and task don’t require new learning, a group

format is probably not necessary for their

accomplishment.”

This is a significant portion of the cultural shifts that occur

on integrated teams. There are expansive lists of cross training for teams; however, areas such as language

use, primary health indicators, key risk factors, skill development, and differences in documentation are

common. It is an important aspect of team development and is vital to improved care as all disciplines begin

to understand more of a person’s whole health status and needs. This process often facilitates the blurring

of traditional discipline boundaries of knowledge and practice.

Cross-training was a central aspect of formal team development for the teams interviewed.

Over the past decade, there has been increased uptake of the interdisciplinary team model for delivering

primary care services. However, so much more could be done. Primary health care reform has a great

potential to improve population health and sustain our health care system. Compared with developed

countries, Kenya’s health care sector is inadequately supported and organized.

Health care is a diverse field where many specialties interact to provide patient care.

The team approach to caring for patients includes many professionals performing a variety of specialized

functions designed to meet the physical, emotional and psychological needs of the patient. For this

collaborative approach to work, it is imperative that all health care professionals understand and respect the

credentials, scope of practice and function of each member of the health care team.

Wheelan, S.A. (2013). Creating Effective Teams: A guide for members and leaders, 4th Edition. Sage Publications, p. 115-116.

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Services offered by primary health care teams include check-ups, physicals, diagnosis and treatment of

health problems, disease prevention and management and general health advice and mentorship.”

How does Rock Health come in?

Rock Health Consultancy is an integrated team of health care providers from different disciplines with a

common mission of imparting into the health care system, patient-centered care (PCC) approach and

community health mentorship (CHM).

Rock Health’s Inter-Disciplinary Forums (IDFs) in the programme Rock Health Junior Consultants (RJCs)

offers a rare opportunity of inter-disciplinary correlation to students in different disciplines of health. This

enables them map out the blueprint as a product of this integration towards a patient-centered care approach.

The IDFs not only lay a platform for integrated health care system in Kenya, but also prepares the RJCs for

community health mentorship with facilitation being done by them.

IDFs unveil a path into Rock Volunteer Programme (RVP) which works to provide CHM at the grassroots

and national level to ensure that the children, youth and the aged make the correct choices as far as their

health is concerned. IDFs promote quality health education and signature programs, Rock Health Junior

Consultants (RJCs) and Rock Volunteer Programme (RVP), complement it with practicality, exposure and

experience.

Who: University Health Students

IDFs are designed for 7 departments within universities that offer health courses. We work closely with

local stakeholders including university associations, entrepreneurs, nongovernmental organizations, health

units and clinics.

How: Forming, Norming, Storming and Performing

Motivated RJCs are solicited and a primary health care team formed. Norms and patterns are worked out.

Tasks and roles are worked out through conflict and the team works collaboratively for improved patient

care. The RJC curriculum is strictly followed according to the schedule and each discipline allotted the task

of research presented during the IDFs. Presentations are made with lead from the IDF programme and the




findings summarized and integrated. Evaluation is done thereafter by the consortium of advisors upon

drafting a report.

Mentors from different disciplines will occasionally be invited to mentor the RJCs.

Outcome: Patient centered care and sustainable primary health care

Team members collaborate to address patient problems that are too complex for one discipline or even

sequential disciplines, to solve.

The team also learns to accept and make use of disciplinary differences, differential amounts and types of

power, and overlapping roles to clarify and evaluate the team’s development and effectiveness.

Facilitators of community forums are built in the IDF set-up and awareness is created in the community so

that people make informed decisions about their health.

1. An Ethical Worker

2. Communication Ability

3. Ability to Learn on the Job

4. Motivation and Initiative

5. Working with Others

6. Ability to Solve Problems

7. Interpersonal Skills

8. Positive Attitude

9. Being reliable & dependable

10. Creative and Innovative

(CQ + CQ) > IQ

CQ = Character Quotient

CQ = Creativity Quotient

IQ = Intelligence Quotient

Reduced: 1. Inter-disciplinary conflict

2. Duration of recovery

3. Ignorance in the community

4. Self-centered approach in treatment

5. Total focus on one disciplinary as an area of

specialization.

6. Inaccessibility to experience-oriented

opportunities

7. The rift between the corporate and students

Improved: 1. Inter-disciplinary correlation

2. Reduced duration of recovery

3. Knowledge on healthy living in the

community

4. Patient-centered care approach

5. Pooling of knowledge from different

disciplines.

6. Access to opportunities that build

experience in students

7. Inter-relation between the corporate health

professionals and health students.




Inter-Disciplinary Forums and Rock Health Junior Consultants Proudly Supported

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