Factors Influencing Inter-Professional Collaboration Among Healthcare Workers In Primary Health Care Facilities. A Case Of Nakuru County Kenya

ABSTRACT

Professionals from varying disciplines work collaboratively to serve patients. Although interprofessional collaboration is essential, existing barriers can prohibit inter-professional teams from working together effectively and efficiently. Inter-professional collaborative education and practice can prepare health workers to work on inter-professional teams by educating them about key concepts related to inter-professional collaboration. Therefore, the study sought to establish factors influencing inter-professional collaboration among the healthcare workers in primary healthcare facilities in Nakuru County. The specific objectives were to establish patient-related, professional-related, interpersonal and organizational factors influencing inter-professional collaboration in Nakuru County, Kenya. The study employed a Cross Sectional Survey Research Design and Self-Administered Questionnaire to collect data from 146 healthcare workers. Purposive sampling, Stratified sampling and Simple random sampling techniques was used to sample the Sub-Counties, Primary healthcare facilities and respondents respectively. Data was analyzed using SPSS and relationships between variables were tested using correlation analysis and multiple regression. The study established that Patient-Related Factors (β = 0.263, p = .006

= 0.05) had a statistically significant effect on inter-professional collaboration among healthcare workers in primary healthcare facilities in Nakuru County when a joint regression model was considered. However, there was no statistically significant effect between Professional-Related Factors (β = 0.054, p = .606 ˃ p = 0.05), Interpersonal Factors (β = 0.072, p = 0.491 ˃ p = 0.05) and Organizational Factors (β = 0.187, p = 0.103 ˃ p = 0.05) on inter-professional collaboration among healthcare workers in the joint model. The study concludes that patient-related factors determined as role of the patient, language of patient and team membership significantly influenced inter-professional collaboration among healthcare workers. The study, therefore, recommended that the County Governments should strengthen Inter-professional collaboration among the healthcare workers through adequate sensitization and provision of more resources in terms of financing. The study also recommends that the professional group leadership should include a member conversant with the language of the patients and that Sign Language should be taught in Medical training institution in order to improve communication efficacy. Moreover, the study recommends that Primary healthcare facilities should organize team building sessions among the healthcare professionals to enable good working relations.