Learning to Fly Together: A Sociomaterial Study of Interprofessional Patient Care

• In Event: Environment for Inclusion

Abstract

Using sociomaterial theory, we seek to understand how the materialities of practice in a hospital setting (e.g., professionals, bodies, routines, instruments, protocols, technologies) act together to either produce or fail to produce quality patient care. How do material phenomena become interlaced in practice, and how do they affect learning and action?
We offer an answer to this question through the story of one patient, Grace, and the team of care providers who cared for her during her hospital admission. Our narrative inquiry approach to presenting the data makes visible the different disciplinary knowledges and practices at play. Understanding the tangled network of materials and the knowledges that they circulate about patients is critical for improving interprofessional collaboration.

Authors

• Lisa Y. Faden, University of Western Ontario

• Kathryn M. Hibbert, University of Western Ontario

• Sandra DeLuca, Fanshawe College

• Noureen Huda, n/a

• Mark Goldszmidt