Knowledge Sharing in Chinese Hospitals: Identifying Sharing Barriers in Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine Collaboration

✍ Scribed by Lihong Zhou, José Miguel Baptista Nunes (auth.)

• Publisher: Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg
• Year: 2015
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 227
• Series: Innovation, Technology, and Knowledge Management
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This book aims to identify, understand and qualify barriers to the patient-centred knowledge sharing (KS) in interprofessional practice of Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM) and Western Medicine (WM) healthcare professionals in Chinese hospitals. This collaboration is particularly crucial and unique to China since, contrary to Western practice, these two types of professionals actually work together complimentary in the same hospital. This study adopted a Grounded Theory 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. The research findings point to five categories of KS barriers: contextual influences, hospital management, philosophical divergence, Chinese healthcare education and interprofessional training. Further conceptualising the research findings, it is identified that KS is mostly prevented by philosophical and professional tensions between the two medical communities. Therefore, to improve KS and reduce the effects of the identified barriers, efforts should be made targeted at resolving both types of tensions. The conclusion advocates the establishment of national policies and hospital management strategies aimed at maintaining equality of the two medical communities and putting in place an interprofessional common ground to encourage and facilitate communication and KS.

✦ Table of Contents

Front Matter....Pages i-xii
Introduction....Pages 1-7
TCM and WM Collaboration in Chinese Healthcare Organisations....Pages 9-18
Knowledge Sharing in Healthcare Sectors....Pages 19-38
Research Paradigm and Methodology....Pages 39-52
Research Design....Pages 53-81
Research Findings....Pages 83-155
Discussion....Pages 157-183
Conclusion....Pages 185-191
Back Matter....Pages 193-221

✦ Subjects

Management/Business for Professionals; Cultural Studies; Health Informatics