Life Cycle Of Public Health Partnerships

A large body of experience and research provides clear evidence about many of the key determinants of successful partnerships. The focus is to achieve better outcomes through improved service delivery. Partnership working has come a long way in recent years. There is now a consensus that effective partnership working is essential in order to design, develop and deliver personal services for those requiring support and assistance to optimise their independence and happiness. The most important features of an effective partnership are engaging the right people and ensuring they function as a genuine team.

Teamwork and collaboration with other healthcare providers is very important. To function effectively there needs to be mutual respect, open communication, and shared decision making in the best interest of the patient. As a member of a team it is vital to know ones own strengths and limitations, this way patients receive the best care.

The features of effective partnership working are to ensure there is good communication between all parties that ensure a high standard of care is delivered to the individual involved at all times. It ensures each party is covering all area’s and that all needs are met and that all partys have a good knowledge of who is delivering what to the individual and the contacts they have if other issues may arise and the access they have to these.

To improve partnership working we all have to focus on the purpose of our job role which is to provide best care and support to improve individual’s life, health and wellbeing. Standard ways to maintain good partnership working are as follows-

A partnership is an arrangement between two or more groups, organizations or individuals to work together

We can improve partnership working through effective communication and information sharing. By working as a team and having regular staff meetings, with colleagues and other health care professionals.

Health and social care organisations increasingly need to work together in partnership to get better value from the available resources and improve services and outcomes for service users, by improving quality of support for service users. Good relationships between partners, a common vision and understanding of expected achievements and what outcomes need to be delivered are critical to the success of partnerships. This will enable a more responsive service, which is well co-ordinated approach to the service delivery, and better value for money by ensuring reduced duplication of services.

Collaboration is the essence of community health practice (Vollman, Anderson, & McFarlane, 2012, pg. 292). Collaboration prevents duplication of effort, creating more publicity and credibility than accomplished alone and achieving maximum power on health promotion. Collaborators within the “Seniors’ on

Working in partnership with others allows for a consistent continuity of care of the individual. Working with

Partnership is when two or more organisations work together, showing cooperation and collaboration. This can provide better care and support for service users. For example, different funds working together, instead of working individually and stressing. Another example, a social worker and the health visitor will need to work together, share ideas and use different skills to develop a support plan that will benefit children and families. This also promotes multi-disciplinary working. Partnership thus can reduce conflicts and enhance team working skills as professionals can work together, sharing responsibilities and ensuring need led approaches are met and set. This can be done by reviewing care plans and offering support.

This is the way nurses come together with healthcare consumer, family, and others in the conduct of nursing practices. Collaboration is professional healthcare partnership grounded in a reciprocal and respectful recognition and acceptance of: each partner’s unique expertise, power, and sphere of influence and responsibilities; the commonality of goals; the mutual safeguarding of the legitimate interest of each party; and the advantages of such a relationship. (Spring, 2010). Nursing students should be ready to collaborate with their patients and their families at times in every situation in order to come out with a positive outcome while helping the patients. This is attained by sharing the knowledge we have learned in class combined with what the patient says (subjectives) orthe situation you are. When nurses collaborate together and understand one another it will be easier for them to take care of the patients and they will manage to offer a high quality care possible.

Collaboration is a process in which a nurse practitioner has a relationship with one or more physicians to deliver health care services. Such collaboration is to be evidenced by nurse practitioners documenting the nurse practitioners’ scope of practice and indicating the relationships that they have with physicians to deal with issues outside their scope of practice. Nurse practitioners must document this collaborative process with physicians. The collaborating physician does not need to be present with the nurse practitioner when the services are furnished or to make an independent evaluation of each patient who is seen by the nurse practitioner.

Partnership is when two or more organisations work together, showing cooperation and collaboration. This can provide better care and support for service users. For example, different funds working together, instead of working individually and stressing. Another example, a social worker and the health visitor will need to work together, share ideas and use different skills to develop a support plan that will benefit children and families. This also promotes multi-disciplinary working. Partnership thus can reduce conflicts and enhance team working skills as professionals can work together, sharing responsibilities and ensuring need led approaches are met and set. This can be done by reviewing care plans and offering support.

In order to collaborate successfully with the other members of the team, they have to ‘work together’. Collaboration implies “working together to achieve something that neither agency could achieve alone” (cited by Biggs in Day, 2006, p9). It involves effective communication and contribution to a common goal – and the health and wellbeing of the patient and shared responsibility of the outcome. Each team requires a quality leader, regular meetings attended by all members, joint assessment, regular reviews of patient records which should include ‘shared care plans’; joint decisions following consultation and task delegation to individual team members with the outcome being that “care must be structured, organised and systematically provided to each person in a variety of ways” (Creating an Interprofessional Workforce, 2007, p10).

According to American Nurses Association (2010) Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice, collaboration is defined as, “a professional healthcare partnership grounded in a reciprocal and respectful recognition and acceptance of: each partner’s unique expertise, power, and sphere of influence and responsibilities; commonality of goals; the mutual safeguarding of the legitimate interest of each party; and the advantages of such a relationship”.(p. 64). Collaboration amongst health care providers is very crucial in providing quality care to patients. Integration of disciplinary teams, improves communication, coordination, and most importantly, the safety and quality of patient care. It provides interaction between team members allowing