406chapter SEVENTEEN
Refl ective Response 1
Grant Charles
Whether we acknowledge it or not, we are intimately connected with members of other
professions. We cannot fully function even in the most isolated of practice settings with-
out the direct or indirect support of numerous other professionals. Yet despite this, we
spend little time in our entry- level training or in our subsequent practice, thinking or
learning about these other professions. If we think about them at all, it is often through
the egocentric lens of our own profession and particular job roles. We often struggle to
understand the worldviews of the other professions. We know our view is the correct
one and become frustrated when others express other perspectives. There are, of course,
people who work hard to understand other professions although not as many as are
needed. As a result and as Novak rightfully identifies, there is a price patients pay when
members of the various health professions do not relate well to each other. It has been
well documented in a number of jurisdictions that when there is a lack of collaboration
between the health professions, there is a corresponding increase in intervention errors
and patient death (Kohn, Corrigan, & Donaldson, 2000; Romanow, 2002).
Novak correctly calls for increased attention to be paid to how relationships with
other practitioners and with patients can be improved. She discusses the need for nurses
to let go of traditional insular behaviors and to reach out and learn with and from other
professions especially during their foundational training. I commend her statements
on this issue. She has rightfully identified the beginning point for collaboration and for
creating significant changes in the health care system.
It is unfortunate though that she gives the nurse- managed health home model as
an example of how this collaboration could work. This is more of an interdisciplinary
approach. The same is true of the service- learning project she describes later in the
chapter. Both are interesting projects but I would respectfully suggest neither appear
to me to be interprofessional. The difference between interprofessional and interdisci-
plinary is critical. Interprofessional education (IPE) is when two or more professions
purposefully interact in order to learn with, from, and about each other (Charles &
Alexander, 2014a). The goal is to learn to see the world through the perspective of the
other. Interdisciplinary is more about using the knowledge of two or more professions
to achieve a desired outcome (Charles & Alexander, 2014a). The goal is to take knowl-
edge from a number of professions to provide the best service. There are obviously
connected concepts and adhering to an interprofessional approach can increase the
likelihood of incorporating the best approaches needed for any given service. However,