The challenges of boundary spanners in supporting inter-organizational collaboration in primary care – a qualitative study of general practitioners in a new role

BMC Family Practice

Research Article

Marius Brostrøm Kousgaard¹  Thorkil Thorsen¹  Anne Sofie Kjær Joensen¹ 

[1] The Research Unit for General Practice and Section of General Practice, Department of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of Copenhagen, PO Box 2099, Øster Farimagsgade 5, DK-1014, Copenhagen, Denmark;

关键词: Boundary spanners;    Denmark;    Family practice;    General practitioners;    Inter-sectoral collaboration;    Municipalities;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12875-015-0231-z

 received in 2014-11-04, accepted in 2015-01-26,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundThe visions of more integrated care have created new roles and accountabilities for organizations and professionals. Thus, professionals are increasingly expected to engage in boundary spanning activities in order to facilitate inter-organizational and inter-sectoral collaboration. However, this task can be difficult for individual actors and it is important to investigate the work and challenges of boundary spanners in various settings. This study explores the challenges related to a new boundary spanning role for general practitioners employed to facilitate collaboration between the municipalities and general practice.MethodsThe study is based on semi-structured interviews with ten general practitioners acting as municipal practice consultants in the Capital Region of Denmark. The transcribed interviews were analyzed in several steps organizing the material into a set of coherent and distinct categories covering the different types of challenges experienced by the informants.ResultsThe main challenges of the general practitioners acting as boundary spanners were: 1) defining and negotiating the role in terms of tasks and competencies; 2) representing and mobilizing colleagues in general practice; 3) navigating in an unfamiliar organizational context.ConclusionsThe results support previous studies in emphasizing the difficult and multifaceted character of the boundary spanning role. While some of these challenges are not easily dealt with due to their structural causes, organizations employing boundary spanners should take note of these challenges and support their boundary spanners with matching resources and competencies.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Kousgaard et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015