Interprofessional collaboration: a case study regarding the professionals of the Care Center for Elderly, Rio de Janeiro State University (NAI/UERJ), Brazil

The paper analyses the meanings of interprofessional collaboration using as source the perception of health professionals working in the Elderly Care Center of the State University of Rio de Janeiro (NAI / UERJ). This is a qualitative, descriptive and analytical case study. The research that led to this paper was a desk review of the interprofessional collaboration concept. In addition, we performed 13 semi-structured interviews with professionals working on different areas in the NAI-UERJ, from March to June 2015. The praxiological perspective of Pierre Bourdieu (sociology of practice), and especially the notions of habitus and field, were instrumental in the analysis and interpretation, as keys for understanding the relationship between practice and professional education of agents. A debate regarding different dimensions of interprofessioal collaboration in the context of their interactions in care prodution is presented as a partial result of the research.