Health residency programs in a university hospital: a potent training setting for interprofessional collaborative practice

Abstract

The aim of this study was to understand residents’ experiences of interprofessional collaborative practice (ICP) in a university hospital in São Paulo. We conducted a qualitative study with 14 residents undertaking uniprofessional and multiprofessional residency programs. The data were collected using critical incident technique-based semi-structured interviews and analyzed using thematic analysis as proposed by Bardin’. The university hospital showed itself to be a potent setting for ICP, promoting interactions between professionals from a range of areas and with varying levels of qualification. The quality of interactions between workers, residents and patients and their families was a determining factor for the development of ICP. Barriers to ICP were identified, including lack of organizational structure, excessive workload, weaknesses in the provision of permanent training in interprofessional education and the predominance of the biomedical model of health care. Collaborative actions mediated by informal communication was the most common means used for delivering shared care.