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Healthcare professionals: working together

Healthcare professionals are increasingly working together, with each other as well as with patients, in the name of better care.

To get the best possible care, patients need not just competent prescribers but effective teamwork bringing together pharmacists, physicians, nurses, physical therapists and caregivers that are fully engaged. The implementation "in the community" of seamless care for patients with severe and/or chronic illnesses, the correct utilisation of complex drug treatments (anti-cancer drugs, antiretrovirals, etc) and of generics, the judicious use of medical devices and mobility aids, assisted decision-making in favour of appropriate screening, patient information, etc.: today patient care and prevention call for diversified and complementary skills.

Healthcare professionals need to make the most of their differences, their know-how, their availability and a well-adapted organisational structure in order to work together more effectively.

In its special August issue entitled "Working together in the name of better care" the French journal Prescrire invites healthcare professionals "to inform, to communicate, to listen well and to get along well together, in the name of quality care", using concrete cases: consent for care, shared decision-making, respect for and sharing of patient confidentiality, communicating effectively about a prescription, etc.

The special issue gives examples of collaborative organisation of care: multidisciplinary continuing education, new roles for nurses and pharmacists, patient groups involved in the improvement of healthcare practices, healthcare centres, networks to provide in-home care for patients with serious illnesses, etc.

The posters displayed at the 2012 Prescrire Encounters, also devoted to the theme "Working together in the name of better care" and held in Angers, France, are available online (in French) HERE. Videos of the plenary sessions are available (in French) HERE.

©Prescrire 1 August 2012

Special issue of La revue Prescrire "Travailler ensemble" Rev Prescrire 2012; 32 (346). Click here for the table of contents (in French).
For more information:

Contents of the special issue
of La revue Prescrire
"Travailler ensemble pour
mieux soigner. Pourquoi ?
Quand? Comment ?"
Free (in French)

See also:

 VIDEO  Presentation of the
2012 Prescrire Encounters
Free (in French)

 VIDEO  The plenary sessions
of the 2012 Prescrire Encounters
Free (in French)

Posters from the
2012 Prescrire Encounters
Free (in French)