Abstract

Purpose: Describe interprofessional collaboration (IPC) in the context of pain management in neonatal intensive care based on healthcare team members’ perceptions of partnership, cooperation and coordination.

Design: A descriptive cross-sectional study design was used.

Background: IPC improves the quality of pain management for neonates. IPC is teamwork involving both professionals and the neonates’ parents. Parents play an important role in the holistic care of their infant, which includes pain management.

Methods: Data was collected with Assessment of Interprofessional Collaboration Scale (AITCS-II) from the healthcare teams featuring representatives (n = 132) of multiple professional groups who were working in neonatal intensive care units (n = 4) in Finland. Descriptive statistical methods and the Mann-Whitney or Kruskal-Wallis nonparametric tests were used to analyze the data.

Results: The results were examined in three subscales of IPC (partnership, cooperation and coordination) on three different levels: “need to focus on developing collaborative practice”, “moving towards collaboration” and “good collaboration”. Participants perceived all the subscales as well as the overall level of IPC for pain management in neonatal intensive care to be at level “moving towards collaboration”.

Conclusion: Participants appreciated each other as professionals and were willing to cooperate, but they had different perceptions of parental involvement in IPC. Attention should be paid to IPC in specific contexts such as pain management.