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The skills to work together: Strengthening interprofessional collaboration in diabetic foot care

Canadians at risk of developing diabetic foot ulcers should have access to effective, affordable, timely, and culturally responsive care. No individual healthcare practitioner possesses all of the necessary skills to provide optimal diabetic foot care. Instead, healthcare practitioners must work in formal or informal interprofessional teams. Which skills do healthcare professionals in Canada need to bring to interprofessional foot care teams? What are the three types of necessary skill sets for interprofessional collaboration described in this briefing? Read the issue briefing for our full discussion.

Key Insights

Practitioners with cultural competency skills are essential to address patients’ experiences of discrimination in diabetes care and improve health outcomes in underserved and marginalized populations.

Effective interprofessional collaboration requires strong leadership, dynamic interpersonal skills, and dedicated cultural competencies.

Overcoming gaps in care coordination and skills requires interprofessional collaboration. Healthcare practitioners have had to become effective at building makeshift networks of interprofessional teams to support patients, given the current lack of a formal, organized, and coordinated system.

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