ETSU faculty emphasize need for collaboration in the health care industry
JOHNSON CITY Teamwork isnt just needed on the ball field. In fact, if you ask East Tennessee State Universitys Dr. Brian Cross, its even more necessary in the health field.
Its all about communication and relationships, said Cross, an associate professor and vice-chair in the Department of Pharmacy Practice at ETSUs Bill Gatton College of Pharmacy. You have multiple eyes looking at the same person from different angles. If you consider the patient from the perspective of the nurse, the social worker, the psychologist, the pharmacist, the physician theyre all going to look at the same patient slightly differently.
The key, Cross said, is creating an environment where each person involved in caring for that patient feels comfortable speaking up and offering his or her opinion related to a proposed treatment plan.
I believe with everything that I have that we are not using everybody on the team to the best of their abilities because of the way weve defined roles in the past, Cross said. And I think the best way to combat this is at the educational level.
Citing a need for dissolving the established hierarchy among health professions, Cross said the sooner those seeking degrees in health fields learn to work with one another, the better off patient care will be in the long run.
Our goal is training these groups of people together much, much earlier and much more consistently, Cross said. When students in various health care professions come into the Academic Health Sciences Center at ETSU, weve got to align them in interacting groups.
That is exactly what Cross and Dr. Reid Blackwelder, medical professor at ETSUs Quillen College of Medicine, have spent the last several years trying to do. At ETSU Family Physicians of Kingsport, the pair practiced what they preached, fostering a collaborative culture in which everyone had a voice.
And it appears what they started is spreading. The clinic now features an interprofessional clinic one day a week where patients are seen by a team of health care professionals and students.
In addition, Cross and Blackwelder teach interdisciplinary courses at ETSU in which medical and pharmacy students are put together to solve medical mysteries presented to them.
While transforming health care from what it is today into an interdisciplinary, collaborative industry wont happen overnight and comes with its fair share of challenges, Cross said it is well worth the effort.
This is a model that works. We just have to break down those ego barriers, he said. If you believe it is the right thing to do, then we must be willing to do whatever it takes to ensure this process of training becomes the expectation of all learners, not an exception for only some learners. In the end, it is about the patient.
Cross and Blackwelder recently delivered the keynote address at the American Pharmacists Associations annual conference in San Diego. Their talk centered on the ongoing transformation of the healthcare system and the need for collaboration to meet the needs of a community and improve outcomes.