Mitigating Barriers to Patient-centred Knowledge Sharing - A Case-study of Knowledge Sharing Problems in the Collaboration of Traditional and Western Practitioners in Chinese Hospitals

Lihong Zhou, Miguel Baptista Nunes, Wenwen Liu

2013

Abstract

This paper reports a research study that aims to mitigate and overcome barriers to the sharing of patient-centred knowledge in the interprofessional collaboration of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) professionals in Chinese hospitals. This research adopted a Grounded Theory (GT) approach as the overarching methodology to guide the analysis of the data collected in a single case-study design. A public hospital in central China was selected as the case-study site, at which 49 informants were interviewed by using semi-structured and evolving interview scripts. Through the analysis of the interview data using GT analysis methodology, 11 KS barriers emerged. With a further conceptualisation of the KS barriers identified, it became clear that KS is mainly hindered by philosophical and professional tensions between TCM and WM practitioners. Therefore, in order to improve KS and mitigate the two types of interprofessional tensions, three strategies are proposed based on the findings of this study, namely: (1) formalising KS processes and exploring effective communication channels; (2) establishing specific interprofessional training schemes and programmes; (3) eliminating imbalances of professional power and statues and creating conducive KS environment.

Paper Citation

in Harvard Style

Zhou L., Baptista Nunes M. and Liu W. (2013). Mitigating Barriers to Patient-centred Knowledge Sharing - A Case-study of Knowledge Sharing Problems in the Collaboration of Traditional and Western Practitioners in Chinese Hospitals . In Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2013) ISBN 978-989-8565-75-4, pages 298-307. DOI: 10.5220/0004546002980307

in Bibtex Style

@conference{kmis13,
author={Lihong Zhou and Miguel Baptista Nunes and Wenwen Liu},
title={Mitigating Barriers to Patient-centred Knowledge Sharing - A Case-study of Knowledge Sharing Problems in the Collaboration of Traditional and Western Practitioners in Chinese Hospitals},
booktitle={Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2013)},
year={2013},
pages={298-307},
publisher={SciTePress},
organization={INSTICC},
doi={10.5220/0004546002980307},
isbn={978-989-8565-75-4},
}

in EndNote Style

TY - CONF
JO - Proceedings of the International Conference on Knowledge Discovery and Information Retrieval and the International Conference on Knowledge Management and Information Sharing - Volume 1: KMIS, (IC3K 2013)
TI - Mitigating Barriers to Patient-centred Knowledge Sharing - A Case-study of Knowledge Sharing Problems in the Collaboration of Traditional and Western Practitioners in Chinese Hospitals
SN - 978-989-8565-75-4
AU - Zhou L.
AU - Baptista Nunes M.
AU - Liu W.
PY - 2013
SP - 298
EP - 307
DO - 10.5220/0004546002980307