2016 Volume 19 Issue 3 Pages 60-69
Purpose: To clarify the interprofessional collaboration process and role of the nurses in relation to social welfare workers and chief care managers at Community Comprehensive Care Centers.
Method: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 9 public health nurses and experienced nurses with at least 4 years of work experience at Community Comprehensive Care Centers directly operating in the Kanto Region regarding their thinking and actions concerning interprofessional collaboration. A qualitative and inductive analysis was then conducted using the Modified Grounded Theory Approach.
Results: Interprofessional collaboration of nurses follows the process, first, of “Unification between specialists” and then moving through “Fusion of the specialty between specialists” of ‘Mutual support using specialization’ and ‘Mutual instruction’ before arriving at “Transformation to comprehensive roles” that ‘expand rule functions,’ which at the same time causes “first an increase and then decrease of specialization recognition” resulting from the ‘Exercise of specialization recognition’ and then the ‘Burying of specialization recognition.’
Consideration: A characteristic of and issue with comprehensive interprofessional collaboration of nurses is the inability to increase specialization recognition and pride, even though the nurses are exercising specialization.
