Collaboration for Physician Assistants: Working as a Team

Interprofessional team-based care is proposed as a key approach to address rising costs and increasing complexity in healthcare. Healthcare is anchored in relationships, hence the need to develop competencies to enhance interactions among team members and with patients. Interprofessional team approaches foster quality, safety, and optimal patient care. Team function is a balance of task and process. Interprofessional collaboration is not sufficient to create a high-functioning team. Additionally, barriers to collaboration are considered. Interprofessional communication strategies that enable collaborative practice, tools for managing conflict constructively, and facilitators of collaborative practice are described. Finally, collaborative leadership approaches are considered.