Patient Safety And Interdisciplinary Communication. Introduction.

Communicate is essential in health and social care settings because without a good communication to patients, families, colleagues and management is very difficult to deliver good service of care.

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.

There are seven principles used to aid patient-clinician communication. The first principle is mutual respect; this is the idea that the patient and clinician are decision-making partners (Paget, et al., 2011). They work together to support the patient’s ideas, decision-making, and goals. The second principle is harmonized goals; this ensures that the patient is fully aware of care plan goals and approves of it before it is implemented. The third principle is a supportive environment;

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

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

“Errors in communication give rise to substantial clinical morbidity and mortality (Riesenberg, Leitzsch, & Cunningham, 2010).” As a result, the Joint Commission has identified effective communication as one of its National Patient Safety Goals (Dunsford, 2009).

Communication in a Health Care Organization is very important. It is the key for the health care providers and other health agencies to carry out their responsibilities to maintain

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.

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

Communication in health care is crucial for success in any health care based institution. Collaborate communication within health care professionals is more effective than an individual. Collaboration in health care is defined as health care professionals assuming complementary roles and cooperatively working together, sharing responsibility for problem-solving and making decisions to formulate and carry out plans for patient care (Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2008). Collaboration amongst physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals increases team members’ attentiveness of each other’s type of

“Extensive research has shown that no matter how knowledgeable a clinician might be, if he or she is not able to open good communication with the patient, he or she may be of no help” (Asnani, MR. 2009). Effective communication plays a big role in healthcare and contributes to the quality of patient care and teamwork.

Communication amongst team members is equally important to the successful delivery of quality patient care. Effective communication within the team promotes trust and therefore enables the team to support one another. It eliminates errors and avoids misunderstandings within the work place thus saving valuable time. Additionally,

The main building blocks to have a functioning health care system that is focused on patient centered care consists of teamwork and communication. Effective team work and communication not only prevents mistakes, it delivers safe and reliable patient care. Communication consists of spoken, non-verbal and or written language. In this essay we will discuss a few useful communication tools, how communication impacts nurses and the entire health care team, and how it affects patient care and outcomes.

Patients in acute care settings are often wholly dependent on the professional care nurses provide to them. Patient safety in intensive care units has long been a topic of interest and is dependent on many factors. Recently, patient safety and outcomes in relation to the staffing of registered nurses (RNs) have been topics of much research to identify how much impact staffing really has on patient outcomes. The overwhelming majority of studies conducted have found that the number of nursing staff providing care is strongly correlated with patient outcomes (Institute of Medicine, 2004).

There are multiple different ways to have effective communication in health care facilities, it is just taking the time to do it that tends to be the hardest part. By taking the time to communicate properly with those around you that are caring for the same patient, it could ultimately be the difference between life and death. Enforcing policies to make sure all health care personnel are effectively communicating by checklists, dry-erase boards, providing monthly staff meetings, briefings, debriefings, and using the SBAR will decrease the number of medical and/or surgical errors