Shared borders: achieving the goals of interdisciplinary patient care

Definitions and components of interdisciplinary care, as well as means of implementing, reasons for adopting, and barriers to interdisciplinary care, are presented. A health care discipline is an area of knowledge and research that is critical to patient care. In multidisciplinary practice, each member of a clinical group practices with an awareness and tolerance of other disciplines. In interdisciplinary practice, members of a team actively coordinate care across disciplines. In an ideal interdisciplinary health care team, decisions are made by consensus and each discipline has an equal opportunity for input into decisions. To make the transition from multidisciplinary to interdisciplinary practice, all disciplines, rather than representing freestanding silos, must have shared borders that represent a common professional interest and knowledge base. Such a practice model will lead to an increased level of trust among professions and a deeper level of understanding about what each profession can contribute. Barriers to interdisciplinary practice include historical factors such as different philosophies of practice and professional training, logistics of team implementation, and resource limitation. To facilitate interdisciplinary practice, pharmacists must be competent, understand what a team is, provide leadership, be prepared to help develop drug therapy outcome objectives, project self-confidence, and demonstrate a readiness for interdisciplinary practice. Interdisciplinary care must be applied in a cost-effective way. Interdisciplinary patient care must be taught in professional schools and postgraduate training programs. Interdisciplinary patient care requires common values, a common vision, and an understanding of teamwork with the ultimate goal of serving the patient with wisdom.