Element | CoP | Healthcare CoP |
Intended purpose | Sharing knowledge Improving organisational performance Fostering innovation | Sharing knowledge Improving clinical practice Enhancing humanism of and healthcare quality Improving Knowledge Translation Addressing ethical issues and human suffering (proposed) |
Outcomes | Performance and profits Find competitive advantage | Development of local guidelines and policies Improved adherence to evidence-based policies Quality improvement to better standards of care Enhanced collective moral resilience (proposed) |
Domain Shared learning need | Business Education Government | Healthcare professionals committed to providing humanistic and quality care and improving well-being for patients and practitioners |
Community Method of collective learning over time | Activities and discussions to share information | Activities and discussions to share information Dialogue to reflect and deepen understanding of (shared) experiences |
Practice Resources provided by interactions over time | Joint enterprise—improving performance Mutual engagement—understanding for other professions or industries Shared repertoire—industry dependent, but often includes technological solutions Practical wisdom (proposed)—improving the ability to see which course of action is best supported by reasons | Joint enterprise—improving patient care, cultivating self-awareness and resilience Mutual engagement—opportunity to address healthcare system and culture Shared repertoire—often limited resources, excessive demands, patient-centred care. Practical wisdom (proposed)-activating capacities of the self (professional), other (patient and/or carers and colleagues) and the problem in itself |
A CoP is organised around a ‘practice’. Traditionally, three characteristics or qualities define a ‘practice’, and we propose a fourth characteristic of a practice:
Joint enterprise.The members of a CoP are there to accomplish something on an ongoing basis; they have some kind of work in common and they see clearly the larger purpose of that work. They have a ‘mission’. In the simplest of terms, they are ‘up to something’.
Mutual engagement.The members of a CoP interact with one another not just in the course of doing their work but to clarify that work, to define how it is done and even to change how it is done. Through this mutual engagement, members also establish their identities at work.
Shared repertoire.The members of a CoP have not just work in common but also methods, tools, techniques and even language, stories and behaviour patterns. There is a cultural context for the work.
Practical wisdom (proposed). The members of a CoP share a practical wisdom which combines different professional experiences, as well as the reflection about them. The practical wisdom is not included in the professional training, neither in the student’s curricula. Only emerges with the experience in the profession.
CoP, communities of practice.