Enhancing Inpatient Care Through Interprofessional Collaboration: The Nurse's Impact

Defining Interprofessional Education (IPE) and Collaborative Practice (IPCP)

Interprofessional Education (IPE) occurs when learners from two or more health professions engage in joint learning activities to develop collaborative skills (Interprofessional Education Collaborative [IPEC], 2023). For example, nursing, medical, and pharmacy students might simulate patient case management together. In contrast, Interprofessional Collaborative Practice (IPCP) refers to healthcare providers working across disciplines to deliver high-quality, patient-centered care. The IPEC framework bridges these concepts, ensuring that education directly informs practice (IPEC, 2023).

Interprofessional Care in Hospitals: The Sunnybrook Framework

Optimizing interprofessional care in hospitals is crucial due to the complexity and acuity of patient needs in these settings. Hospitals often manage patients with multiple comorbidities and high-risk conditions, requiring coordinated efforts from diverse healthcare professionals to ensure comprehensive care.

Sunnybrook Health Sciences Centre, a large Canadian hospital, has developed a groundbreaking framework to enhance interprofessional collaboration, aiming to transform patient care and health systems outcomes (Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, 2017). This initiative emphasizes collective team competencies over individual capabilities, fostering effective teamwork among diverse healthcare professionals. The framework includes six core competencies—communication, interprofessional conflict resolution, shared decision-making, reflection, role clarification, and interprofessional values and ethics—tailored to the unique demands of acute care settings (McLaney et al., 2022). Implementing this framework involved overcoming challenges such as resistance to change and communication barriers, but Sunnybrook's participatory approach ensured its relevance and adaptability across various clinical and non-clinical settings.

This innovative framework aligns closely with the broader IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Version 3 (2023), which emphasizes values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, and teamwork (IPEC, 2023). By integrating these competencies, Sunnybrook supports the creation of high-performing teams capable of delivering optimal care in complex, fast-paced environments. This approach ensures that all team members, regardless of their specific roles, work together effectively to enhance patient care and improve outcomes, demonstrating the transformative power of collaboration in healthcare.

Enhancing Patient Care in High-Stress Environments Through Interprofessional Education

High-stress healthcare settings, such as emergency departments or disaster response scenarios, demand cohesive teamwork to prevent errors and improve outcomes. Interprofessional education (IPE) equips healthcare professionals with the competencies needed to navigate these challenges effectively. Interprofessional Education (IPE) encourages healthcare professionals to work together rather than in isolation. By promoting collaboration through shared values, clear roles, effective communication, and teamwork, IPE helps bridge gaps in the healthcare system that can lead to compromised care, especially in high-pressure situations.

True collaboration, one of American Association of Critical Care Nurses’ six standards for a healthy work environment, can support patient care and boost employee satisfaction (AACN, 2025) Multidisciplinary rounds exemplify modern interprofessionalism, where teams discuss and develop patient care together.
Key pillars for positive coordination among nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals to improve patient care are active learning approaches like community-based, problem-based, experiential, and technology-based learning (Kemp & Brewer). But technology along is not the answer, as illustrated by real-world variability in the implementation of interprofessional simulation-based education (IPSE), with some principles like active learning being commonly applied, while others are less frequently implemented (Ju et al., 2022).

Additionally, student characteristics, educational design, and organizational factors play a role in how well IPE works (Oudbier et al., 2024). Overall, early exposure to IPE can shape healthcare professionals' habits and attitudes, making them effective team players (Kemp & Brewer, 2023). Waiting until later can make it harder to change ingrained practices and mindsets.

For example, IPE encourages nursing students to provide patient-centered care, improving efficiency, quality, and satisfaction. Effective team communication and role clarification help nursing students navigate interprofessional collaboration, ensuring they are well-prepared for team-based care. Promoting self-awareness and interprofessional identity through IPE empowers them to understand their limitations, value their practice, and confidently engage in collaborative patient care (Oudbier et al., 2024; Zenani et al., 2023). Furthermore, training approaches like TeamSTEPPS (Team Strategies and Tools to Enhance Performance and Patient Safety) enhance interprofessional competencies of all healthcare professionals, including nurses, by providing tools and strategies for effective team collaboration, fostering a collaborative environment that prioritizes patient safety (Ju et al., 2022).

TeamSTEPPS, developed by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the Department of Defense, is an evidence-based program designed to improve teamwork and patient safety in healthcare. It focuses on four core competencies: communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support. Studies have shown that TeamSTEPPS enhances teamwork, reduces medical errors, and increases patient satisfaction (Hassan et al., 2024).

Additionally, Fundamental Critical Care Support (FCCS) is a standardized, interprofessional training program that equips diverse healthcare professionals who are not intensivists to identify and manage critically ill patients until specialized care is available. Thus, nurses, pharmacists, physicians, and other advanced care practitioners learn critical care basics, including respiratory failure, mechanical ventilation, shock, sepsis, trauma, neurologic injury, serious infections, pregnancy, and ethics. Results from a formal evaluation of the FCCS course showed a significant boost in participants' confidence in managing critical illness. Healthcare professionals ranging from nurses to paramedics showed marked improvements in recognizing and treating critical conditions, along with enhanced attitudes towards interprofessional education and care (Hamill et al., 2023).

The Essential Role of Nurses in Hospital Care

Camden Coalition: A Model for Healthcare Hotspotting

The Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers exemplifies healthcare hotspotting initiatives, focusing on comprehensive care for high-cost, high-needs patients through interprofessional teams. This approach prioritizes patients' self-defined goals and fosters cross-sector partnerships (Finkelstein et al., 2020).
But reductions in hospital readmissions or emergency room visits may not fully capture the effectiveness of healthcare hotspotting programs, especially for justice-involved or homeless individuals. These populations often face barriers like unstable housing, mental health issues, and substance abuse, which can hinder consistent engagement in healthcare initiatives (Yang et al., 2023).

Nurses, with their frontline experience and deep understanding of patient needs, are uniquely positioned to identify those most likely to benefit from complex care programs. As the largest group providing 24/7 care in hospitals, they act as primary conduits for information flow between physicians, specialists, therapists, patients, and families. Their continuous presence enables them to synthesize complex information and coordinate care transitions.

For example, Camden Coalition nurses collaborated with community health workers, attorneys, social workers, and others to coordinate follow-up care, ensuring patients receive consistent and personalized attention. Their contributions were crucial in building trust and improving patient outcomes, particularly for those facing significant barriers to healthcare access. This collaborative approach underscores the essential role of nurses in complex care settings (Antelo & Skinner, 2021).

While nursing contributions are undisputed, there is a need for more robust, quantitative research. This research should examine links between nurse-focused interprofessional education (IPE), including simulation-based training on hospital scenarios, and patient-reported experience measures. Key areas of focus should include exploring connections between leadership or advanced communication skills and patient safety indicators (e.g., fall rates, medication errors), or team efficiency metrics (e.g., length of stay, discharge timeliness) within acute care settings.

Conclusions

IPE transforms high-stress healthcare environments by embedding collaboration into education and practice. With most US healthcare facilities now requiring IPE and IPCP, the goal is clearly to have teams capable of delivering safer, more equitable care under pressure. Nurses, as natural integrators, remain central to this progress, ensuring interprofessional principles translate into tangible patient benefits.

References

American Association of Critical-Care Nurses (2025). Healthy work environments. Retrieved from https://www.aacn.org/nursing-excellence/healthy-work-environments.
Antelo, G., & Skinner, J. (2021). We need strong, diverse health teams, not just CHWs, to address complex health and social needs in our communities. Camden Coalition of Healthcare Providers. Retrieved April 3, 2025, from https://camdenhealth.org/blog/we-need-strong-diverse-health-teams-not-just-chws-to-address-complex-health-and-social-needs-in-our-communities/
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