Dr Nuala Ryan (UL Kemmy Business School) is leading this collaboration with the HSE. Working together collaboratively in interprofessional and multi professional teams is a cornerstone of future healthcare practice. Each member of these teams can make a unique contribution to achieving a common goal and ultimately enhancing patient care and wellbeing. Collaboration is the essence of both the Enhanced Community Care programme and the operation of the Community Healthcare Networks (CHNs) to ensure decisions are made closer to the point of care and are specific to population needs. CHN鈥檚 aim to improve integration with health and community support services, delivering on the Sl谩intecare vision to provide the right care, in the right place, at the right time. The formation of the CHNs has brought to the fore the need for collaborative leadership capability in teams consisting of different skills, experiences and career stages to ensure more of an enhanced coordinated effort than was traditionally the case. The creation of Community Healthcare Networks and the need to work collaboratively with discipline managers has therefore created a unique interprofessional, multi professional and general leadership context that merits investigation to ensure impactful delivery of integrated services for enhanced patient care and staff wellbeing.
The overall research focus of the study is to undertake a review of the concepts, advantages, enablers, barriers, and opportunities for CHNs adopting a multi- stakeholder perspective. It will identify a framework of factors that contribute to good practices in interprofessional and multi professional collaboration and from an individual, team, and network perspective.