Health care delivery has evolved to become more interconnected than ever – coordinating care with physicians, nurses, pharmacists and more. Health care disciplines have often worked in isolation from one another resulting in confusion and frustration for both the patient and provider. Interprofessional teams work to solve these problems by approaching patient care from a team-based perspective.

Interprofessional teams involve health care professionals from multiple disciplines working together with patients, families, caregivers and more to deliver the highest quality of care to improve patient outcomes and provider efforts. This whole person care approach strives to consider individual’s lives and their vision of self, and then providing the resources needed to make that vision come true.

“Our goal is to really help each other to learn how best to function within a team and what’s possible - to see ideas others have implemented, to talk about different ideas, and to really maximize the impact that a team can have if they can truly work together,” says Palliative Care Nurse Jennifer Seaman.

Watch Sojourns® Scholars, Joshua Lakin, MD and Jennifer Seaman, a palliative care nurse, discuss the impact of providing whole person care and how it can improve the health care experience for seriously ill patients and their families.