The impact of community engagement on belief conflicts arising during interdisciplinary collaboration among daycare rehabilitation professionals.
Miharu Nishibu, Kengo Kohiyama, Shogo Sawamura and 4 others
PMID 39764303WHAT IT FOUND
Daycare rehab staff reported fewer disagreements with colleagues and families when they understood other professions' roles, knew local resources, and had a network to consult.
Building these community connections may help reduce workplace friction.
Key findings
01Understanding the roles of other professionals in the community was negatively correlated with belief conflicts involving the same profession and patients/families.
02Having access to a local network for consultation was negatively correlated with belief conflicts with patients and their families.
03Specific knowledge of local resources was negatively correlated with belief conflicts with other professions.
STILL TO COME
How it was doneWhat they foundWhat it means for PTsWhat it means for OTsWhat it means for SLPs
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What it does not show
The response rate was low (23.3%), meaning the 70 respondents may not represent the views of all targeted professionals. The sample was heavily skewed toward physical therapists (78.6%), with very few occupational therapists (18.6%) and speech therapists (2.9%), limiting the generalizability of findings to OTs and SLPs. This is a cross-sectional survey, so it shows associations but cannot prove that improving community collaboration causes a reduction in belief conflicts. The correlations found were weak, indicating that community collaboration explains only a small portion of the variance in belief conflicts. The study was conducted in a specific region of Japan, which may limit applicability to other cultural or healthcare contexts.
Declared interests
No funding was received for this study. The authors declared no conflicts of interest.
The easy way to misread this
Do not assume that improving community collaboration will definitively resolve belief conflicts. The study only found weak statistical associations in a cross-sectional survey, and the sample was predominantly physical therapists, so these findings may not strongly apply to OTs or SLPs.