Achieving interprofessional practice in cardiac rehabilitation

Cardiac rehabilitation staff members consider interprofessional practice to be the standard for delivering effective care. However, it is not known how interprofessional teams collaborate or what they consider to be important elements of collaboration. Thus, it is important to investigate how healthcare professionals plan and communicate care, work together, and define their roles as members of the cardiac rehabilitation teams. The purpose of this report was to provide an analysis of current literature related to interprofessional practice in cardiac rehabilitation, with a particular focus on examining the terms interprofessional practice and collaboration.

For this review, published articles in peer-reviewed journals for the preceding 20-year period were included from online databases (CINAHL, MEDLINE, EBM Reviews, PubMed, and Google Scholar). Key words used in the search included "cardiac rehabilitation," "cardiac recovery," and "interprofessional and interdisciplinary practice and collaboration." Of the 67 articles reviewed, 7 met inclusion criteria specifically addressing interprofessional practice in cardiac rehabilitation.

Analysis revealed that (1) the terms interprofessional and multidisciplinary are commonly used interchangeably in healthcare, revealing a lack of clarity regarding interprofessional practices and approaches, and (2) there are few articles that clearly describe, define, or discuss interprofessional practice or collaboration in cardiac rehabilitation settings, rendering it difficult for practitioners to adhere to published practice guidelines.

It is unclear why and how professional team members practice in specific ways to form cardiac teams. Further research is required to increase an understanding of these issues and to develop possibilities for the enhancement of cardiac rehabilitation practice.