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Interdisciplinary teamwork in the community rehabilitation of older adults: an example of flexible working in primary care

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 October 2006

Jane Griffiths
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Lynn Austin
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
Karen Luker
Affiliation:
University of Manchester, Manchester, UK
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Abstract

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This paper presents a section of the findings of a case study of a newly established community rehabilitation team (CRT) comprising physiotherapists, occupational therapists and nurses. The findings reported here address issues of interdisciplinary teamwork that arose during the project. All eight members of the team were interviewed as well as three ex-team members. The data were collected by semi-structured interviews and analysed using thematic content analysis (Strauss and Corbin, 1990). The findings suggest that when recognized barriers to teamwork are eradicated, such as geographical separation and different employers, teams such as the CRT can achieve high levels of teamwork. A problem that took longer for the CRT to resolve, however, was that of flexible working across traditional professional and hierarchical role boundaries. The paper concludes that the difficulties that need to be overcome when a new team and new service are established concurrently, should not be underestimated.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
2004 Arnold