Speech-language pathologist, physical therapist, and occupational therapist experiences of interprofessional collaborations

ABSTRACT

Interprofessional collaboration among speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy is considered to promote best practice in rehabilitation as it can enhance efficiency, patient outcomes, and clinician and patient satisfaction. Although clinician experiences with interprofessional collaboration have been studied in each of the rehabilitation professions separately, limited research has been conducted on the shared attitudes or experiences across speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy. The purpose of this study was to understand speech-language pathologist, physical therapist, and occupational therapist experiences of interprofessional collaborations. We conducted an exploratory cross-sectional online survey study. The survey included Likert-scale questions and open-ended questions that probed clinicians’ general experiences with interprofessional practice and views and beliefs regarding barriers and facilitators to interprofessional collaboration. Responses from 213 clinician respondents were analyzed using descriptive quantitative methods and a qualitative content analysis. The results revealed overlap in attitudes and experiences across speech-language pathology, physical therapy, and occupational therapy about barriers and benefits to interprofessional collaboration. Perceived respect differed among the professions, with speech-language pathologists more frequently reporting that their role is often misunderstood or undervalued by other rehabilitation professionals. These results may guide future research focused upon the predictors of successful interprofessional collaborations and interactions.

KEYWORDS:

• Cotreatment
• interprofessional collaboration
• professional issues
• rehabilitation

Disclosure statement

The author(s) report there are no competing interests to declare.

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2023.2287028

Notes

1. Multiple terms are used in research studies for issues related to interprofessional collaboration and co-treatment, such as “interprofessional practice” or “collaborative practice.” In this paper, we will only use “co-treatment” when we refer to the practice of working together with another rehabilitation professional from a different profession solely within a treatment session. Other terms are used to refer to interprofessional interactions that may additionally occur outside of a treatment session. Co-treatment is one specific interprofessional collaborative practice pattern (Sylvester et al., 2017) that can be included under the broader umbrella of “interprofessional collaborative practice.”

2. For all participant quotations, the author of the quote is identified by the participant code number (e.g., P170) and profession (e.g., OT for occupational therapist, PT for physical therapist, and SLP for speech-language pathologist).

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded in part by Foundation for Physical Therapy Research Promotion of Doctoral Studies (PODS) Level Iand Level II Scholarships supported by the American Physical Therapy Association Scholarship Fund and the Rhomberger Fund. The use of REDCap through the CCTST at the University of Cincinnati is funded by the NIH CTSA program, grant UL1TR001425.

Notes on contributors

Sarah M. Schwab-Farrell

Sarah M. Schwab-Farrell is a physical therapist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation, Exercise, & Nutrition Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. She studies the role of contextual factors on the motor control of individuals with disabilities.

Sarah Dugan

Sarah Dugan is a speech-language pathologist and post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Rehabilitation, Exercise, & Nutrition Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. Her research has focused on auditory perceptual evaluation and children with residual speech sound errors.

Colton Sayers

Colton Sayers is an occupational therapist and adjunct instructor in the Department of Rehabilitation, Exercise, & Nutrition Sciences at the University of Cincinnati. His research has focused on increasing education on the sexual and gender minority population to occupational therapy practitioners.

Whitney Postman

Whitney Postman is a speech-language pathologist and Assistant Professor at in the College of Science and Health at DePaul University. Her research involves stakeholder-informed cultural and linguistic adaptations of group therapy for medically underserved and traditionally marginalized/minoritized older adults at risk for mild cognitive impairment and dementia. She also studies the recovery of motor-speech and linguistic capacities in cases of more rare neurogenic cognitive-communicative disorders.