How Communication Within An Interprofessional Team Could Affect Collaborative Working

The issue of interprofessional working is currently one of key importance in the field of health and social care (Moyneux, 2001). Using the 6 stages of Gibb’s Reflective cycle (1988) I am going to demonstrate my understanding and explore the importance of interprofessional working as well as discuss barriers and facilitators for team working. A healthcare system that supports effective teamwork can improve the quality of patient care, enhance patient safety and reduce workloads that cause burnout among healthcare professionals (Oandasan, 2006). The 6 stages of Gibb’s cycle include description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion and action planning for future practice. I am going to reflect on the preparation work which was carried out each week for the group summative presentation and the importance of communication within the group.

Another important aspect of healthcare is effective interprofessional practice. This allows practitioners from different disciplines to work together to provide the best care for patients. There are four areas of competency in interprofessional collaborative practice. They are values/ethics, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams/teamwork (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2011). Each of these areas contribute to skilled interprofessional

Nurses play an important role in achieving the competencies of interprofessional collaboration, quality improvement, and human flourishing. Successful interprofessional collaboration requires the willingness to step outside of one’s comfort zone and initiate interactions with other professionals. Nurses must also possess a well-rounded understanding of patient needs in order to know which types of professionals with which to collaborate. Communication skills are

“All health care disciplines share a common and primary commitment to serving the patient and working toward the ideal of health for all.” (American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 2014, p. 1) There are many different professional members in the healthcare system. Each of them, have a specific specialty and responsibility to the patient and play an important role in the patient’s overall plan of care. “The scope of health care mandates that health professionals work collaboratively and with other related disciplines. Collaboration emanates from an understanding and appreciation of the roles and contributions that each discipline brings to the care delivery experience.” (American Association of Colleges of

This week’s assigned readings focus on the importance of inter-professional teamwork and collaboration within the healthcare environment. Porter-O Grady describes in the readings that the complex nature of our healthcare system and the complex needs of patients call for a multifaceted approach to patient care (2013). This is greatly because current healthcare practices often necessitate for patients to obtain care from various care settings and from various specialties, making it nearly impossible for one discipline to effectively meet all of the patient’s needs (Porter-O Grady,2013). Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) supports a multifaceted approach to care and is defined by Kara et al. (2015) as the process through which different discplines

As a way to promote interprofessional collaborative practice the HPHA IPC model recommends the implementation of an Interprofessional practice council, unit action councils, interdisciplinary care plans, documentation, and “bullet” rounds (HPHA Interprofessional Practice Model, 2010). Similarly, Weller, Boyd and Cumin recommend supporting interprofessional collaboration with protocols and procedures, using procedures that encourage information sharing among the whole team, such as checklists, briefings and IT solutions (2014).

As a future nurse, I find it very important and beneficial to have been given the opportunity to learn about, and participate in, interprofessional collaboration while still in nursing school. Before starting this course, it never really crossed my mind as to how much I would need to communicate and collaborate with other disciplines within the health care team while caring for my patients. Within the short time I spent with multiple different disciplines in my IPE clinical at Methodist Hospital, I was able to get a glimpse into what their roles and responsibilities were and how that related to and intertwined with the nurse’s roles and responsibilities. Interprofessional collaboration has been defined as “nurses and physicians working together, sharing responsibilities for solving problems, and making decisions to formulate and carry out plans for patient care” (Muller-Juge et al., 2013, p.1). Interprofessional communication and collaboration is extremely important in patient care because proper communication and collaboration between physicians, nurses, social workers, and any other members of the health care team, is imperative to keeping one another informed and, more

From this class I understood that Interprofessional Education (IPE) is when two or more profession learn from, with and about each other. This collaboration is important in order to fulfill the patients’ needs that are becoming more complex, multi-faced and challenging day by day. It is also clear to me that no single profession in healthcare can adequately address all the demands of patients. Therefore, partnership between teams is required to provide a safe, timely, effective and equitable patient care. To have a smooth collaboration, it is necessary to learn from each other’s specializations, strength and experiences. In the real world, healthcare is an interdisciplinary team effort to provide the best possible service to a patient based on evidence based practices. Considering this, I had the

Interprofessional practice is a collaborative practice where multiple health professionals work together in health services to provide comprehensive services to their patients, families and communities to get a more effective result by improving the quality of work. The collaborative practise is basically used by the nursing team or other health care workers who are the member of interprofessional team. “A call for interprofessional team and collaborative practice development has been sounded across Canada because this model is viewed as the way to ensure that all professionals and providers can practice to the full potential of their role and competencies” (Potter, 2014). Interprofessional collaborative practice is a way to ensure that human health resources are used properly which help to decrease the duration time for achieving a quality care.

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).

rofessionals from different disciplines collaborating to provide care to patients. Effectively coordinated and collaborative inter-professional teams are essential to the care and treatment of patients (Rowlands & Callen, 2013; Doyle, 2008; Ruhstaller, Roe, Thürlimann & Nicoll, 2006; Simpson & Patton, 2012, p. 300). Communication is a process of conferring information between individuals through use of speech, writing or various other means, and is critical to the success of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) (Higgs, McAllister & Sefton, 2012, p. 5; Rowlands & Callen, 2013; Sargeant, Loney & Murphy, 2008). An MDT must use multiple strategies to enhance

Collaboration, both inter and intra professionally is part of our current fast paced health care

With increasing pressure on the healthcare environment and its health professionals there is an increased risk for communication breakdowns and errors. (Owen, Shaw, Mitchel, 2013) Thus, inter-professional practice is a necessary avenue to minimise these errors. Interprofessional practice is referred to as a collaborative process among individuals with different backgrounds who share common objectives. (Ndoro, 2014) Increasing the presence of inter-professional collaborative practices in the healthcare system is fundamental for optimal health outcomes as the quality of patient care is significantly improved when members of different health sectors

To summarise methods that are used to implement inter-professional health care, the goal is for education to build a collaborative (practice-ready) workforce. To accomplish this, methods such as; curriculum development, teaching, financing, identifying patient needs, building a team environment (meetings, communicating, developing standing procedure), governance, protocols, standardization, accurate allocation, are essential.

With an ongoing, aging population and a vast growth of chronic illness due to so many incorrect approaches to basic maintenance of life, these vast growing chronic illnesses are now becoming chronic diseases (UQ Health, 2010). Due to increases, our health care system needs the variety of health professionals on board to tackle such a destructive problem. The power of a large group of professionals is referred to as inter-professional practice (IPP). Research shows that a patient’s outcome reflects greatly by team care and the improvement is significant (UQ Health, 2010). A patient is also part of the healthcare team, and has become an integral part of the healthcare system. Patients are active participants rather than passive recipients (UQ Health, 2010). Therefore a quicker and more effective recovery, by getting back to their regular routines more efficiently. As part of the IPP, there are many roles and responsibilities formed by different health professions, which all play relevant parts in the system. The use of inter-professional communication is highly important, as the best possible outcome is wanted for patients. Communication from each profession is vital (UQ Health, 2010).