Abstract
People living with HIV facing impairments and subsequent disabilities related to the virus and its treatment require involvement of a collaborative team of healthcare professionals to ensure reintegration into daily life and community living. Healthcare teams responsible for this care include doctors and physiotherapists. This paper explores the collaboration of doctors and physiotherapists in the rehabilitation of people living with HIV in a semi-rural healthcare setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Six doctors and two physiotherapists were interviewed using a semi-structured interview guide. The qualitative approach led to the emergence of five themes, namely a biomedical versus biopsychosocial approach; scope of practice challenge; multidisciplinary team enigma; institutional structure limitations; and recommendations from healthcare professionals. Both groups of professionals believed that a lack of understanding of the scope of practice and role of the associate profession in the multidisciplinary team led to poor referrals and lack of communication. Furthermore, shortage of personnel and resource limitations posed barriers to effective team interaction. Timely referrals, good communication and understanding of roles were suggested as endorsements to improved collaboration.
Highlights
The HIV pandemic is still rampant, with approximately 37 million people living with the virus around the world.[1]
This paper explores the collaboration of doctors and physiotherapists in the rehabilitation of people living with HIV in a semi-rural healthcare setting in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa
Doctors and physiotherapists are part of the core team responsible for the care of people living with HIV (PLHIV); little is known about the collaboration between these professions
Summary
The HIV pandemic is still rampant, with approximately 37 million people living with the virus around the world.[1]. A study conducted by Chetty and Maharaj[4] explored the relationship between the physiotherapist and the nurse in an urban context in South Africa. Inhibitors to collaboration included role governance, environmental structure and organisational variance. The authors suggested that education through mediums such as inservice training could contribute to improved teamwork.[4] In another study investigating conflict within interprofessional primary healthcare teams, healthcare professionals believed that sources of conflict arose from role-boundary challenges and scope-of-practice dilemmas. Hierarchical structures within primary healthcare teams posed barriers to conflict resolution and this subsequently impedes collaboration of multidisciplinary teamwork.[6]
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