Teamwork is central to rehabilitation. A team is comprised of a group of people, each from a different profession. In a team, professional boundaries are blurred, and much knowledge and many skills are shared. Yet a team is weakened by removal of a team profession. So, what is the unique contribution of a particular profession? This concerns me as a doctor, because there is a belief, quite widely held, that doctors are not needed in rehabilitation services (and teams). In an accompanying blog, I suggest that doctors can and do bring some unique assets to a team. I am now curious to know what people from other professions think their unique assets are. This is an invitation to you, for you to tell readers what you think your profession contributes to a rehabilitation team.

In an earlier blog, I explored what a rehabilitation professional did within a team, and how it was both unwise and not possible to try and research the contribution of a particular profession to a team’s functioning. (here and here)

Nonetheless, I believe strongly that each profession (and each person) within a team does add something particular of value. For a person, the addition is often personal – an interest, a particular strength, a way of looking at things etc. For a profession it is more generic, and any person from that profession will or should add much the same to the totality of a team’s knowledge and skills.

I am therefore asking you, the reader, to consider “What does my profession add to the rehabilitation team?” And, it you feel inclined, to write it out and email it to me as an attachment so that, if it is suitable and after editing it can be published as a blog with your name, on this site. My hope is that with several posts from each profession, I will gain insight into what each profession brings, or thinks it brings, to the rehabilitation team.

There is a brief guidance document here for download (it just downloads; you will not see it on the screen), which outlines what is needed and how to send it to me. I have written a blog about what I think doctors might add (here), as an example; it will give you an idea, but the format, style etc is not fixed. The main aim is to engage and interest the reader.