Kemmy Business School partner with Mid-West Community Healthcare to research Leading with, and for, Inter and Multi professional Collaboration and Innovation.

The Kemmy Business School @UL is excited to announce the launch of a new research initiative with the HSE Mid-West Community Healthcare organisation. This partnership is designed to support the recently established Community Healthcare Network structure across the Mid-west of Ireland which has been developed as part of the Sláintecare vision to provide the right care, in the right place, at the right time. To deliver on this, the CHN Model focuses on improved integration between multidisciplinary primary care teams and health and community support services at network level. The implementation of this model presents a unique interprofessional, multi professional and general leadership context that merits investigation to ensure effective delivery of integrated services for enhanced patient care and staff wellbeing.

Funded by the HSE Community organisation in the mid-west and led by Dr Nuala Ryan and Dr Briga Hynes in the KBS, the overall aim of the project is to review the concepts, advantages, enablers, barriers, and opportunities for CHNs adopting a multi- stakeholder perspective. Working over a two-year period this research project will employ action-based research principles to identify a framework of factors that contribute to good practices in interprofessional and multi professional collaboration from an individual, team, and network perspective as part of this new organisational initiative.

Commenting on the partnership Dr Nuala Ryan indicated that this collaboration is unique and timely as it provides a substantial opportunity to work with our health partners in the Mid-West to support the successful rollout of the new community healthcare networks using organisational science and management principles. In addition, the findings from the study can be used by healthcare networks throughout Ireland, informing health policy and practice.