Health Team Members' Perceptions of Strategies for Patient-Centred Care in Acute Care Settings

Patient-centred care is an ideal of interprofessional collaborative care, and an expectation of patients and their families. Patients and their family members are often referred to as members of the interprofessional team for their care. However, according to patient surveys, this ideal of Interprofessional collaborative care and patient-centred care is often not achieved in the acute care setting. In this session, we report on a qualitative study examining the perceptions of 15 healthcare professionals about patient-centred care on an acute care medical unit in a tertiary care teaching hospital. Professions in this study included nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, social work, home care coordination, and unit administration. The perceptions of these healthcare professionals are compared to those of 28 in-patients and family members on the same medical unit. Perceptions of how patient-centred care should be enacted and the effectiveness of this implementation differed somewhat among various health professionals as well as their patients. Most offered suggestions as to how patient-centred care could be improved, many suggestions which differed from the suggestions of their patients and  families. These suggestions from healthcare professionals and their patients will be explored for feasibility and possible efficacy.