INTERDISCIPLINARY COLLABORATION AMONG HEALTH PROFESSIONALS: A PANACEA FOR EFFECTIVE AND EVIDENCE BASED HEALTH CARE DELIVERY

Introduction: Interdisciplinary collaboration (IDC) is important in health care settings as the complex nature and demands of the health care work environment requires the expertise and knowledge of differing individuals or specialists working together to solve multifaceted and complex patient care problems. Objective: To assess the health professionals' attitude towards development of an interdisciplinary collaborative approach to patient care in health institutions and to systematically review the impact of IDC as a panacea for effective health outcomes in Nigeria. Methodology: The research is a systematic review that provides various approaches for studying interdisciplinary teams. Fifty articles were selected from different search engines such as google, google scholar, science direct and research gate with the search term Interdisciplinary collaboration among health care professionals. Articles were arranged based on most relevant, relevant and closely related articles. Result: The study revealed that IDC is pivotal in evidence based care and contributes immensely to effective and efficient health outcomes. It puts the patient at the center of the healthcare team's focus and allows all health professionals, with the patient, to collaboratively provide input, be part of the decision making, and improve outcomes.Although there are several obstacles to IDC, adopting this team-based culture of mutual respect and understanding is possible and, in fact, necessary. Conclusion: This study reveals that there are many benefits to IDC. It can improve safety and healthcare delivery, as well as reduce costs. Interprofessional team supports patient and personnel engagement, organizational efficiency and innovation.