Communication Between Interdisciplinary Team Members Essay

Searches were made through the online library at Grand Canyon University. Results were refined to include on peer reviewed studies with keywords as combinations of: Safety briefing (45 results), patient safety plus nursing plus communication (1769), patient safety and interdisciplinary (45). Of the results obtained, the list was further refined to those studies that discussed the issue of communication in a team environment and risk of errors, or leadership follow up. Studies were not included if they were considered to be out of scope for the issue. Ultimately ten articles were identified as being pertinent to the subject, or had conclusions that could be extrapolated to the issue in question. From these search results four studies have been chosen for this paper to support the relevance of the issue.

Interdisciplinary work teams includes staff from different level of clinical professionals such as nurses, nursing assistant, surgical technicians, anesthesiologists, physical therapist, occupational therapist, attending physicians who goal is to work and communicate together to improve patient quality care and safety. Working together as a team, will improve patient care and also help to delivered unique patient care quality and reduce medical errors. The use of interdisciplinary teamwork improved communication between different levels of healthcare workers, and limited adverse events, improved outcomes, decreased the length of stay and yield greater patient satisfaction ( Epstein, 2014). In healthcare setting or environment, patient safety

Interdepartmental communication and medical errors have both been proven as causes of harm to patients in health care settings. When there are gaps in communications between nurses changing shifts or patient transitions from one department to another, medical errors can occur and cause harm to patients. Even though there has been improvement in recognition of these problems and actions taken to reduce communication gaps and medical errors, there still needs to be more work, especially in individual facilities.

In nursing profession, communication is one of the vital interprofessional collaboration competencies. A slack in communication gap will affect effective teamwork in providing efficient patient care delivery. Without integrated cooperation and effective communication, there will be a delinquency in the healthcare system, resulting in

Effective communication is one of the utmost characteristics of a high-quality health care model that responds to the existing needs of the general population. However, communication may sometimes be taken for granted and therefore fail to relay important information between health care providers within the interprofessional team. In today’s health care setting, communication is particularly challenging due to the limited time constrain in the workplace. In spite of the utilization of existing charts and documentation, errors are made. In this paper, a real life clinical scenario is discussed which involved a breakdown of

The American Nurses Association (ANA) “Code of Ethics for Nurses” (ANA, 2001) states: “The nurse promotes, advocates for, and strives to protect the health, safety, and rights of the patient”. This reflects that advocating for the patient directly correlates with the safety and well-being of the patient. The key part to patient advocacy is effective communication. In recent times, there has been a focus on the connection of effective communication between healthcare workers and patient safety. A number of Institute of Medicine reports has brought focus to the severe matter. The reports have emphasized the concern of the lack of communication in the healthcare setting and the resulting negative patient outcomes. (Hanks, 2012a). This goes back to the notion that while many healthcare professionals consider themselves as a working member of a team, we have the natural tendency to work autonomously. Therefore, it is the nurse’s duty to collaborate patient centered care by practicing good communication skills with the entire healthcare team, the patient, and the patient’s family if consent is given to assure patient safety.

On many occasions, I have seen situations in which effective communication involving the professional healthcare team played a vital role in the positive outcome of patient care. On the other hand, there have been miscommunication between the healthcare team resulting in situations that could have been tragic to the patient.

A patient will always benefit from the combined knowledge and expertise of several professionals working towards a common goal. This belief has played a key role in the biomedical model of healthcare (Yuill, Crinson and Duncan, 2010) slowly evolving to encompass more holistic models: including the biopsychosocial model (McInerney, S 2016). It is wrong to assume that a single health worker can solely manage the often complex needs of a patient. Since this is the case, effective cross-departmental communication is necessary to ensure the best possible care for a wide-range of service users. Communication, in many ways, seems to be the key to good patient care: it is used to obtain informed consent, it offers dignity and respect to patients and it can flag up possible concerns about a patient early

I believe that communication is the main reason problems occur in health care. It is crucial that the health care team works together as a team and communicates any issues or concerns throughout the process of patient care. No matter how many processes are put into place or how many checklists are followed, mistakes are going to be made unless proper communication occurs. Unfortunately, these mistakes are usually at the cost of safe patient care. According to Edwards (2008), “every

Another issue surrounding the delayed recognition of deterioration in hospitalized pediatric patients results from the inability of the healthcare team to efficiently communicate concerns and respond appropriately. In fact, ineffective inter-professional communication and collaboration is one of the most common causes of adverse patient events (Lancaster, Kolakowsky-Hayner, Kovacich, & Greer-Williams, 2015). Effective inter-professional collaboration occurs when healthcare providers of different knowledge and skill can work together constructively to positively influence patient care (Lancaster et al., 2015). Successful collaboration requires all levels of healthcare providers to communicate openly and directly, respect multiple perspectives, and accept personal responsibility for decision making (Lancaster et al., 2015). However, the hierarchical healthcare structure that exists today inhibits effective communication and, subsequently, effective response to concerns (Ennis, 2014). Authoritative environments that result in inadequate communication cultivates distrust, frustration, and hostility within the organization further hindering collaboration

Patient safety, and care are the top priorities for healthcare providers, and that is why communication is greatly encouraged (Coiera, 2006). Examples of communication in the healthcare setting are face-to-face, emails, SBARs, rounds, phone calls, and meetings (Coiera, 2006). In order to disseminate information regarding the change topic, it is crucial for the stakeholders to practice good communication skills. Nurses for example give report to nurses through an SBAR, which is great because they can explain to the incoming nurse how the patient, and parent reacting to the skin-to-skin contact care (Daughtery et al., n.d). Not only is it essential for these stakeholders to communicate in the various ways listed, but it is important that they are trained, and educated enough to be able to support the

Being able to communicate helps to prevent unsafe practice and increases patient safety. Staff to staff communication errors have been identified as the root cause of 20 percent of sentinel events in public hospital settings. It is important to be able to communicate with your team members and team leader so that you can communicate pertinent information effectively and quickly (Mater Health Services Brisbane Limited

The transference of pertinent information among the interdisciplinary group within any organization requires skills in order for the information to be transferred effectively. Communication is the process of sending and receiving information between two or more individuals to achieve a particular outcome or action (Stonehouse, 2014). Effective communication is achieved when the transference of information is shared, understood, and put into action by another individual (Coley, 2015). Collaboration is much desired and needed in order to improve patient care and outcome. Without effective communication, patient needs are not met, valuable information is not shared or improperly transferred, processes duplicated or omitted (Coley, 2015).

In 2012 World Health Organization reported an estimate of one in ten people being subject to harm whilst hospitalized in developed countries. Patient safety is the epitome of healthcare as this is indicated by the ongoing systematic reviews by health organizations worldwide. Nurses duty of care to patients is ensuring and maintaining patient safety during their admission in hospital (Ammouri, et al 2012). Failure of effective handoff/handover communication between healthcare providers has been found to be the cause of approximately 80% of serious medical errors (Huang et al, 2010). This article will focus on communication between caregivers, lack of leadership and teamwork, lack of reporting systems, inadequate analysis of adverse events and inadequate staff knowledge about

Leonard et al (as cited by World Health Organisation, 2009) reports that breakdowns in communication are the primary causes of inadvertent patient harm. In terms of system or process, communication is a general term that refers to the transmission of information from one entity to another (Fryer, 2013). In health care, communication is a key component to ensure patient safety. Pezzolesi et al (2013) highlights that the impact of a sub-optimal clinical handover can have serious consequences for both staff and patients. The impact for patients can mean an unclear diagnosis, delay or altered treatment plan and recurrent medication errors. The impact on staff can include; feeling emotionally distressed, feeling powerless as a result of clinical uncertainity as a result of clear instructions of treatment plans. This highlights the importance of an optimal handover in order to ensure patient safety and continuity of care. In 2008 an analysis of 2455 sentinel incidences were reported to the Joint Commission for Hospital Accreditation in the USA uncovered that the 70%