How Does Language Impact Interprofessional Collaboration?
By Katherine Evans
The language we use in our daily interactions has clear implications for how clinicians’ roles are seen and defined. It is more important than ever to understand how language choices have the potential to impact bias, create oppression, promote ineffectual hierarchies, and is detrimental to social justice movements, thereby thwarting interprofessional collaboration.
Over the past 2 decades we have seen an increased focus on the roles of interprofessional teams and creation of more functional roles.
There is clear evidence and importance of highly effective interprofessional teams in all areas of health care. Even among those who value the collaborative models and all members practicing “to the top of their education and licensure,” we continue to utilize ineffectual language to describe team members.
An example of a term commonly used in the United States to describe nurse practitioners and physician assistants is “midlevel” or “extender.” Many individuals find these words demeaning for a variety of reasons. Let’s consider the use of these words and the impact on those they describe in the Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Competencies (IPEC) framework.
Read Katherine’s entire article on interprofessional education and collaboration in the ICE Blog.
Katherine Evans, DNP, FNP-C, GNP-BC, ACHPN, FAANP
katabe@me.com