Knowledge-Sharing Practices Among Dentists, Pharmacists, and Allied Health Professionals: A Cross-Sectional Study in Eastern Cape Public Hospitals, South Africa

TL;DR

This study examines how dentists, pharmacists, and allied health professionals share knowledge in South African hospitals, finding limited collaboration and low use of information systems.

Contribution

The study identifies profession-specific gaps in interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing practices and leadership-driven collaboration in public hospitals.

Findings

Dentists showed higher collaboration with external communities and leadership-driven knowledge-sharing compared to other professions.

Pharmacists and AHPs had low adoption of information systems for knowledge exchange.

Significant differences were found in encouragement for global perspectives and inter-team solutions by profession.

Abstract

Knowledge-sharing is a deliberate exchange of information to enhance accessibility and reuse which is critical for improving healthcare delivery. This study assessed knowledge-sharing practices among dentists, pharmacists, and allied health professionals (AHPs) in nine public hospitals in South Africa’s Eastern Cape Province. A cross-sectional survey was conducted using purposive and stratified random sampling to recruit 99 participants. Data were collected via a validated questionnaire and analysed with SPSS v.22.0 using descriptive statistics. Respondents were predominantly female (77.6%) and aged 21–35 years (63.6%); AHPs comprised 65.7% of the sample. The results show a statistically significant association between profession and encouragement to adopt a global perspective (p = 0.017), while significant differences were observed between profession and encouragement to seek inter-team solutions (p = 0.020), and access to leadership-driven opportunities for interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing (p = 0.016). Despite observable patterns in the descriptive results, no other statistically significant differences by profession were observed for all other items. Collaboration with external communities and leadership-driven knowledge-sharing opportunities were also highest among dentists but limited overall. Adoption of information systems for knowledge exchange was low, particularly among pharmacists and AHPs. Participation in professional development and recognition of long-term knowledge-sharing strategies followed similar patterns. These findings highlight the need to strengthen leadership-driven opportunities for interdisciplinary knowledge-sharing and to develop targeted interventions to address specific gaps between professions.