Samantha Thompson, Jordan Orbe, Lisa Schoenbrodt, Ed.D., Jeffrey E. Barnett, Psy.D., ABPP
Maintaining Competence in Inter-Professional Practice: It Takes an Inter-Professional Village
Clinical competence is essential for all health professionals to ensure that patients
receive the highest possible quality of professional services. Yet, there are many
threats to professional competence that health professionals must confront and deal
with on an ongoing basis. Challenges may include aspects of the professional work
we do, stressors and challenges in our professional lives, and how they interact.
Ongoing life stressors, competing demands, and related challenges can lead to symptoms
of distress and the development of burnout, which may adversely impact one’s professional
competence. Further, health professionals may suffer from emotional distress and mental
health challenges that can degrade professional competence.
This poster presentation focuses on how to develop and effectively utilize a culture
of competence in interprofessional practice settings to include clinical, training,
and educational settings. Research demonstrates health professionals’ limited ability
to self-assess their own competence, especially when it is threatened or degraded.
Further, professions’ ethics codes focus on the reporting of unethical behavior but
neglect the important obligation to act proactively to promote ethical conduct and
competence among colleagues. Professionals working in interprofessional practice have
a unique opportunity to develop a communitarian culture that promotes proactively
supporting each other in a safe environment. Examples of strategies used include developing
and actively utilizing competence constellations; modeling transparency, openness,
and help seeking behaviors with colleagues and trainees; and creating a collaborative
and safe holding environment in which threats to competence and personal challenges
can be addressed in a respectful and helpful manner that promotes professional competence.