Please Don't Touch My Things

Published in the April 2025 issue of the ISHA Voice.

By: Michelle Zemsky Dineen, chair of the Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) Task Force

Twice each year, our online Masters in Speech Language Pathology program meets in-person to focus on hands-on learning and simulation. Being online means we have no home base and often borrow space from other programs that are on campus.

I entered the space and dropped myself in an empty chair noticing the students in this space had large name placards on their desks. Mine had a note facing the learner…” please do not touch my things”. The things were the placard itself, and 2 dry erase markers tucked into a desk well. What!? She didn’t know me and why on Earth would I touch her things? I moved the table tent into the well for safe keeping still thinking it odd to write such a message. Despite the hectic weekend, I couldn’t stop thinking about the note. I wondered if it was for me or did it exist there regularly. How often did they share their space? Were these her last two markers after the others had vanished? I went from making it about me to making it about them. It didn’t matter that she didn’t know me and that I would respect her things. It didn’t matter why she wrote it, just that she did. Still, my knee-jerk reaction was not positive.

Reflecting, I considered the foundational elements of interprofessional practice (IP) including Values and Ethics, Teams and Teamwork, Communication, and Roles and Responsibilities (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2023). Communication was obvious and quite clear. I may have read some tone or sass into the message as is possible with any communication that lacks context, but the intent was unambiguous. Next, I focused on Values and Ethics. This was when I realized that any mystery related to her other markers didn’t matter, simply that they felt they needed to write the note. It was important to them, so it was important to me.

We all enter spaces with ideas and plans, and it is possible we are biased to think our way is the right way; after all, makes sense to us! The beauty of collaborating is that we get to see a picture bigger than our own views and, perhaps, one that is more robust than we could have imagined on our own. Considering the stakes are significantly higher when we are discussing patient care, checking ourselves can be an important task despite good intentions. I needed to check myself that day in this low stake encounter though the lesson is not lost on me.

Leaving the space, I tucked in all the chairs and set the name placards in place. While not everyone communicated this need, respecting their space and belongings is the right thing to do. April is National Interprofessional Healthcare Month; how do you work to ensure you are a great collaborator?

Reference:

Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2023). IPEC Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Version 3. Washington, DC: Interprofessional Education Collaborative. https://www.ipecollaborative.org/2021-2023-core-competencies-rev