Interprofessional Collaboration and Communication
Team Functioning
Candidates should understand team roles, closed-loop communication, structured handoffs, and psychological safety. Know tools such as SBAR (situation, background, assessment, recommendation), check-backs, and speak-up culture. Understand conflict resolution, graded assertiveness, and the difference between task conflict (useful) and relationship conflict (harmful). Recognize how hierarchy suppresses concerns and how debriefing improves future performance.
Communication Skills
Know the elements of patient-centered communication: open-ended questions, reflective listening, teach-back, and shared agenda setting. Understand health literacy, interpreter use, and cultural humility. Recognize that family meetings require preparation, a clear summary, and documented decisions. Understand disclosure of errors: prompt, honest, and complete communication with apology and a plan, coordinated with risk management.
Traps
Common traps include choosing to "document the concern and move on" instead of escalating, using jargon with patients, relying on a family member to interpret complex information, and assuming a handoff is complete without a read-back. Another trap is confusing assertive escalation with insubordination.
Worked Example
Rule of thumb: use SBAR for any urgent communication and require a read-back for critical information. If a nurse tells a physician that a patient looks worse and the physician dismisses it, the appropriate next step is graded assertiveness with objective data and escalation up the chain, not silence.