Identifying common values among seven health professions: An interprofessional analysis

Area of Science:

• Health Professions Education
• Professionalism Studies
• Interprofessional Practice

Background:

• Traditional theories of professionalism emphasize interprofessional differentiation.
• Understanding shared values across health professions is crucial for effective collaboration.
• Competency frameworks offer insights into professional identity and practice.

Purpose of the Study:

• To explore relationships and common themes/values across competency frameworks of seven Australian health professions.
• To identify underlying values within professional competencies.
• To develop a higher-order theoretical framework of health professional values.

Main Methods:

• Comparative analysis of competency frameworks from seven Australian health professions.
• Application of constructivist grounded theory to identify key themes.
• Mapping and comparison of individual competencies against identified themes.

Main Results:

• Identified a common structure and understanding across professions, contrary to classical theories.
• Found shared underpinning values, challenging differentiation based solely on scope of practice.
• Proposed a model with two core values: client rights and professional capacity to serve healthcare needs.

Conclusions:

• Health professions share a common value base, fostering interprofessional practice.
• Interprofessional practice is the intersection of client rights and each profession's contribution.
• Recognizing shared values challenges paradigms that distinguish professions only by scope of practice.