Registered Nurses' Association of Ontario

Background Context Guideline on Intra-professional Collaborative Practice among Nurses

  • Intra-professional practice occurs when multiple members of the same profession work collaboratively to deliver quality care within and across settings
  • The collaborative process involves a synthesis of perspectives to better understand complex problems.
  • A collaborative outcome is the development of integrative solutions provided by input from various parties
  • Nurse-to-nurse intra-professional collaborative practice is complex in every setting, position, generation and experience, and high-quality, collaborative, respectful relationships are vital for communication, interaction and positive outcomes for patients/clients and job satisfaction for nurses.
  • There are positive outcomes for patients/clients and health-care teams linked to effective intra-professional collaboration that can be achieved by building supportive resilient teams; fostering collegialism; improving the collaboration between new grads, managers, practical nurses, nurse practitioners, and registered nurses; and valuing respectful and effective communication between nurses.
  • The RNAO expert panel used the framework for healthy work environments to organize the recommendations within this guideline for intraprofessional collaborative practice. As such you will find the recommendations address physical/structural and policy components; cognitive/psychosocial and cultural components; and professional components.
Healthy Work Environment
Intra-professional Collaborative Practice among Nurses
Background Information