Collaboration : A Health Care Imperative

From The Critics

Reviewer: Daniel J. Pesut, PhD, RNCS, FAAN(Indiana University School of Nursing)
Description: This book presents a systematic study of the concepts, dynamics, and consequences of collaboration in health care disciplines.
Purpose: The author tackles analysis and development of the scholarship in this area. After an extensive review and critique of the existing literature, she gained insight and understanding into the complexities of collaboration as process and product. In this work she succeeds in the scholarship of integration and application of her ideas and theories. The model she has created will inform discourse into the 21st century.
Audience: This book is required reading for any healthcare professional invested in collaborative ventures. Premises of a systems model of collaboration are made explicit. Collaboration is defined as a "dynamic transforming process of creating power-sharing partnership for pervasive application in health care practice, education, research, and organizational settings for purposeful attention to needs and problems (practice) in order to achieve likely successful outcomes." Although the definition is complex, it is comprehensive.
Features: The extensive literature resources cited will be a valuable resource for students, educators, practitioners, and scholars. Detailed tables support the analysis and critique of research studies and the types of collaboration observed. Contributors add to the scope of the book's relevance and usefulness. For example, chapters review issues for collaboration in a medical practice; and the leadership and politics necessary to support collaboration with consumers as allies is also well done. The final chapter is an attempt to summarize values espoused by all of the authors who contributed to the text. This attempt to summarize the dimensions and values is well-intentioned but less integrated than other chapters and contributions. The implications and consequences of the ethics of collaboration could be more developed.
Assessment: In the final analysis, individual healthcare professionals must grapple with the tasks and challenges of collaborative practice. The ideas and discussions provided here define the "what" of collaborative healthcare practice. Chapter contributions also shed light on "how" such collaboration is initiated, maintained, and evaluated. As the author correctly notes, "now" is the time for collaborative initiatives to take root. Will you follow the lead of these pacesetters?

Daniel J. Pesut

This book presents a systematic study of the concepts, dynamics, and consequences of collaboration in health care disciplines. The author tackles analysis and development of the scholarship in this area. After an extensive review and critique of the existing literature, she gained insight and understanding into the complexities of collaboration as process and product. In this work she succeeds in the scholarship of integration and application of her ideas and theories. The model she has created will inform discourse into the 21st century. This book is required reading for any healthcare professional invested in collaborative ventures. Premises of a systems model of collaboration are made explicit. Collaboration is defined as a "dynamic transforming process of creating power-sharing partnership for pervasive application in health care practice, education, research, and organizational settings for purposeful attention to needs and problems (practice) in order to achieve likely successful outcomes. Although the definition is complex, it is comprehensive. The extensive literature resources cited will be a valuable resource for students, educators, practitioners, and scholars. Detailed tables support the analysis and critique of research studies and the types of collaboration observed. Contributors add to the scope of the book's relevance and usefulness. For example, chapters review issues for collaboration in a medical practice; and the leadership and politics necessary to support collaboration with consumers as allies is also well done. The final chapter is an attempt to summarize values espoused by all of the authors who contributed to the text. This attempt to summarize thedimensions and values is well-intentioned but less integrated than other chapters and contributions. The implications and consequences of the ethics of collaboration could be more developed. In the final analysis, individual healthcare professionals must grapple with the tasks and challenges of collaborative practice. The ideas and discussions provided here define the "what" of collaborative healthcare practice. Chapter contributions also shed light on "how" such collaboration is initiated, maintained, and evaluated. As the author correctly notes, "now" is the time for collaborative initiatives to take root. Will you follow the lead of these pacesetters?

3 Stars from Doody