Fysioterapeuten (May 2024)
“It’s about how you express yourself”: A qualitative metasynthesis about physiotherapists' cross-sectoral interaction
Abstract
Background: The organization of the Norwegian health service, with a division between specialist and primary health services, largely requires collaboration and integration across the sectors. Physiotherapists' practical approach can create challenges for collaboration across organizational boundaries with different contextual and cultural frameworks. The purpose of this study is to investigate physiotherapists' intraprofessional collaboration across health care sectors. Methods: We carried out a qualitative meta-synthesis based on searches in Oria, Google scholar, NORA, and PubMed. Through a systematic screening of qualitative primary studies, 6 studies were identified as relevant for our research question. We used metaethnographic analysis to synthesize data. Results: The studies showed that physiotherapists largely expressed a need for relational interaction that enabled practical approaches and clinical discussions. Guidance and supervision were identified as main forms of collaboration in the literature, where physiotherapists in the specialist health service are expected to support physiotherapists in the primary health service. This was identified as creating an asymmetric relationship between physiotherapists, potentially creating challenges for collaboration. However, our results show that communication and relational skills could help to compensate for the asymmetric relations. Conclusion: As a supplement to political guidelines that primarily highlight organizational strategies to meet collaborative challenges, this study shows that physiotherapists' relational competence is significant for cross-sectorial collaboration. The asymmetric relationship that is experienced in cross-sectoral interaction between physiotherapists can be adjusted for through structural frameworks in combination with relational skills, thus should be given increased attention.
