Interprofessional collaboration in the Norwegian welfare context: a scoping review

Abstract

ABSTRACT Joint efforts among welfare services are often needed to provide help to people with complex needs. Interprofessional collaboration is believed to play an important part in successful service provisions. In Norway, a strong political will and significant efforts are focused on financing and implementing policies to support interprofessional collaboration. Despite this, empirical literature on the topic is fragmented. An overview of interprofessional collaboration in Norway is internationally relevant since the complexity in social service provision is experienced as challenging in different contexts. A scoping review was performed to investigate the facilitators of and constraints on interprofessional collaboration by Norwegian welfare services. After screening the relevant literature, 12 empirical studies were synthesized and analyzed using four dimensions of interprofessional collaboration (sharing, partnership, interdependence, and power). The results suggest that interprofessional collaboration by Norway’s welfare services has not been fully actualized. This is partly due to the individual services’ autonomy and segregation, which are reflected in laws and regulations, the funding system, and different ideological goals.