Exploration de la perception de l’interdisciplinarité de la part des infirmières en milieu gériatrique
Problem: In the context of an ageing population and of the complexification of health needs, working in interdisciplinarity became a necessity to give quality care to the vulnerable older people. Advantages of working in interdisciplinarity are known but its integration in the practice of healthcare professionals is sometimes difficult. The understanding of the perception of interdisciplinarity by nurses is an important element for successful interprofessional collaboration, however this subject was little studied in general, even less in a geriatric context.  Methodology: The purpose of this exploratory qualitative study was to explore the perception of interdisciplinarity by nurses. Data were collected with seven semi-structured interviews and one group discussion. Tesch’s method (1990) was used to analyze the data and a representation of nurses’s perception was elaborated.  Results: Interdisciplinarity is perceived as a fragile balance process between participants’desire to assert their professional identity and their wish to collaborate and to work in synergy with the other professionnals in the interest of older person’s wellbeing. Participants consider nurses’ contribution to the interdisciplinary team indispensable and that their availability and nearness to patients give them a privileged status making them the pivot of the team. They also underline that the vulnerability of older people and the absence of family caregivers during interdisciplinary meetings urge nurses to act as the older person’s spokesman. They unanimously identify communication as the major element of a successful collaboration. They add that the leadership, the competence and the experience of nurses are important determinants of a successful interdisciplinarity, while the desire to collaborate and mutual respect have to be shown by all the team members to work harmoniously. Moreover, among all potential structural and organizational factors, only shortage of professional resources was identified as having an incidence on interdisciplinarity.
Interprofessional collaboration Nurses Elderly Perception Perception Interdisciplinarity