“We don’t do that here…” Ways to Build Positive Rapport with Your Interdisciplinary Colleagues

Introduction:

“In healthcare, good team building is where all team members understand, believe in, and work towards the shared purpose of caring and working for patients. This sense of common purpose should never be assumed. Team leaders should talk about it at every opportunity and ensure all team members are working towards it in their day-to-day work.” (Craig & McKeown, 2015, p.16).

Where health professionals work in multidisciplinary teams, it is not always clear where team boundaries should be drawn (West & Lyubovnikova, 2012). As an SLP on any form of social media, you’re likely to see someone post a “rant” about another discipline interfering in their assessment, treatment, orders, etc. At a quick glance, it appears the two main targets are occupational therapy, and dietary, or more specifically, the registered dietician. This resource is being offered to suggest that in our profession, it is essential that we learn to work cohesively as a team, with efforts spent together in best interests of the patient.

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