Mutual Respect

Mutual respect or slight variations on that theme were commonly mentioned in the telling of successful IPC stories. These slight variations of a mutual respect theme included topics such as:

As was the case with trust, it is also apparent that mutual respect is not just between the care providers, but between the care providers and the patients. The following exchange from the NorWest Community Health Centre focuses on a respect theme and illustrates that respect must extend to the patient and must be reciprocal.

Hierarchy was also tied into the mutual respect theme as the following two quotes illustrate. The first is from a university instructor whose success story related to the interprofessional group of faculty members who developed one of Lakehead University's first IPE courses.

Perhaps some of the hierarchy present in our health system is eroding as evidenced in the following observation:

Related topics to mutual respect

Knowledge of everyone's role is key* (often contrasted to the damage that disrespect or ignorance of others roles/responsibilities can cause)
Evolving role of nursing leading to lack of clarity regarding nursing roles/responsibilities
Need to be aware of everyone's strengths and weaknesses
Respect being linked to an increased comfort in communication
Appreciating the value each team member brings (e.g. nurses, chiropodist, medical secretary, interpreters)
Checking egos*
Hierarchy of professions and between students (grad: undergrad)
Turfism*

Note: *indicates comment repeated

We owe it [quality care] to all of our patients. They are all human beings and they are not treated that way. You treat people with respect here and they appreciate it as they should, and the fact that they appreciate it so much speaks to how they get treated elsewhere. I have a bad feeling in my stomach about that, because it is not right. But at least that is what we can do here.

But having said that, we don’t take any crap. One of the things that happened, and this was early on in the inception of NWCHC was this attitude that everyone deserves respect, well we deserve respect too. All it took was to put a sign up in the reception area that says to behave yourself…can’t be flipping out. Once people realized that respect is reciprocal, it will happen.

Another one [barrier] I would say would be hierarchy; sort of people seeing themselves as perhaps greater contributors, more valuable, having more of the knowledge that is involved in something called health. That, I don't think, is everyone and I revert back to the committee [that developed the IPE course] in that everyone's area was valued and that was a wonderful experience partially because of that. But I think there is a great deal more work that has to be done for IPC and IPE to try and deal with social values that are put on certain professions in which society or even the people within those professions see themselves as either higher or lower on a totem pole of knowledge that can contribute to the overall area of health.

I find that sometimes these physicians will walk in and some will want to be called by their first name. Many new grads want to be called by their first name and it even takes us back a little bit. We kind of go "oh seriously? You want to be called by your first name?" but I think even that little bit of a gesture kind of heightens the interprofessionalism as it takes them down from the hierarchy as this is my role on the team and it equals things out a little bit and I see that. People are starting to gravitate towards accepting of interprofessionals.