The Role Of Collaboration In Nursing Care

Teamwork and collaboration can be found in many various settings including healthcare. In nursing one can find a plethora of teams, such as multidisciplinary teams. Observers and participants have found particular dynamics within teams that influence the success of those teams which in turn affect patient safety. Through a collaborative effort, nursing experts developed competencies to ensure teamwork and collaborative practices of current and future practitioners with the goal of improved quality of care and patient safety.

Interprofessional cooperation is defined as, “Multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds work together with patients, families, caregivers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care” (WHO,

Today’s way of life is less physically active and more sedentary. Obesity in America has been on the rise amongst our children largely due to unhealthy eating habits. Excessive body fat that is stored in the body and can cause many health problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure, sleep apnea and depression. A step toward curing the obesity epidemic is through nutritional education at a young age because change becomes harder with time, lifestyle changes and decreasing metabolism.

School lunches play a significant role in nutrition of a nine-year-old girl because many meals are eaten at school. School lunch programs provide the basis of nutrition education for children. According to the Federal Register, the school lunch programs work to support the overall wellness of students.6 Healthy food options are promoted by the standard of the school lunch programs because children are impacted significantly by what they observe to be normal. The article addresses the importance of healthy lunch options in schools to promote an overall healthy

Current nursing in a state of constant change and nurses burnout rates reaching crisis levels, organizations need responsive and skilled leaders at the helm.The only way to navigate through these difficult times is with excellent leadership at all levels of each organization.

Nowadays, more children in the United States are struggling with obesity. According to the Obesity Rates and Trends (2015), “5 percent of 6-to-11-years-olds are severely obese” (para. 2). Since we discovered such information, we decided to follow Big Idea ten which states, “Primary education (six to eight years) must be designed to meet the unique development of children this age” (Couchenour & Chrisman, 2011, p. 276). We created an advocacy action plan called Nutritionists and Healthy Lunches (N.H.L). In this action plan, we advocate that elementary schools should hire at least two nutritionists. The nutritionists would go into each classroom at least once a week for about twenty minutes. Throughout these twenty minutes, they would inform the students of healthy and unhealthy food choices. In the mornings and afternoons, the nutritionists would allow families to create appointments with them. During these appointments, the nutritionists would provide the parents ways and ideas to help their children eat healthier foods at home. In our action plan, we also advocate to serve healthier school lunches to children because they are still being exposed to unhealthy foods, such as the round pizzas and garlic cheese flat breads.

The new school breakfast and lunch program focus on providing students with nutrient-dense meals that is low in calories. The program is targeting to reduce childhood obesity and improve the diet and health of school children. With the increase in fruits and vegetable consumption along with the decrease in sodium and fats consumption, this program is also favorable among parents because it is a means to prevent the risk of cardiovascular disease, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, stroke, and type 2 Diabetes (Federal, 2012, p.3). The National School Lunch and School Breakfast Programs require schools to make changes to their menu base on the Institute of Medicine of the National Academies recommendations. Schools need to increase the availability of variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and non-flavor reduce fat milk; reduce the levels of sodium, saturated fat and trans fat in students’ meal; and stay within the recommended range of calories intakes.

Children consume most their daily meals from school, therefore it is important policy makers to ensure that school foods are health and nutritious. Like most people, children main eat 3 meal per day, breakfast, lunch and dinner. Every morning during the weekdays, children across the United states head to school before eating the most important meal of the day, breakfast. American schools are required to serve student a breakfast and lunch. Students in grade school obtain breakfast from their cafeteria upon arrival to school. The breakfast, along with other meals provided by the school has a great impact on the health status. Food as well as refreshment (i.e water, juice, carbonated drinks) are considered as two of the most important determinant of health. These substances fall under the individual behaviors which is a factor

Interprofessional is defined as a group of individuals from different disciplines working and communicating with each other individuals (Hall and Weaver, 2001). Members of an Interprofessional team communicate and work together, as colleagues, to provide quality, individualized care for patients. The Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations recently reported that almost 70 percent of patient adverse events are associated with the lack of collaboration and communication among practitioners (TTUHSC, 2009). Cooperation, collaboration, and communication are important when working with interprofessional team members.

Many programs/services have been implemented to address healthcare issues facing children ages 1-4. However, the one healthcare issue that is considered top priority among children is healthy eating patterns. Not only does healthy eating promote childhood health and growth but also intellectual development. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, school based programs can play an important role in promoting lifelong healthy eating. Immediate effects of unhealthy eating patterns include health problems, such as eating disorders, obesity, and tooth decay which is the single most common chronic childhood disease (Smith and Lewis, 2012). Programs such as the School Breakfast and Lunch Program have implemented strategies to encourage adequate nutrition to prevent chronic diseases such asthma and learning disabilities (Kogan & Newacheck,

Teamwork is one of the main characteristics of nurseś job which ensures the best outcomes for the patient. Nurses work as a team and professional and friendly environment is essential to create good collaboration and ensure patient safety. Unfortunately horizontal violence decreases successful communication which can lead to the miscommunication and compromise patient safety.

In this note, I will reflect on nursing collaboration which is a cornerstone for providing better care to patients. I will try to examine some benefits and opportunities while identifying the barriers and issues to effective collaborative work among nurses. Throughout my note, I will be using the LEARN format for better reflection on my clinical practice, my thoughts, and feeling.

The idea of school breakfast programs originated in 1966 in the United States as a way to provide nutritious foods to children from low-income families (Food Nutrition Service, 2013). It wasn’t until 1992, that breakfast clubs in Canada and other school breakfast programs adopted this idea and was established to help nourish our young Canadian minds – school breakfast programs subsidized meal and snack programs designed to help children gain access to a healthy breakfast or snack (Breakfast Clubs of Canada, 2012). As noted in the study Nourishing Young Minds (2012), a report done by the Toronto Public Health, the quality and nutritional value of these meal and snack programs are regulated by Canada’s nutritional guidelines, in order to ensure adequate nutritional values for young children (p. 7). Moreover, these programs are being funded through various government grants, local donation and parental supports; however, the need for funding and amount of funding provided depends on the community (Breakfast for Learning, 2014; Breakfast Clubs of Canada, 2012; De Wit, 2012, p.34).

According to the peer-reviewed article “Validation of the School Lunch Recall Questionnaire to Capture School Lunch Intake of Third- to Fifth-Grade Students” by Amy Paxton, MPH, RD, Suzanne Domel Baxter, PhD, RD, LD, FADA, Phyllis Fleming, PhD, and Alice Ammerman, DrPH, RD, there is an important need for new, more accurate and efficient means of childhood dietary assessment methods within schools. Throughout this study, childhood dietary intake evaluations are used to recall or observe children’s consumption at primary schools. Due to increasing statistics of childhood obesity and current expensive, time and resource heavy methods of assessment, an improved means of intake evaluation could prove beneficial. Through this study or research,

Healthy nutritional habits are emphasized in all educational atmospheres throughout the country, but, ironically, they are highly ignored when developing school meals. It is no secret that American children are offered the wrong variety of nutrients, including sugars, carbohydrates, and fats. This is especially alarming, due to the fact, that in a survey conducted in 2012, nearly 21 million adolescents stated that they were dependent on school lunches as their main meal of the day (Perle). Therefore, it is estimated that the average student is receiving sixty five percent of their everyday calorie intake within school. Actually, many schools also offer breakfast along with lunch. To put it in perspective, if an elementary student eats all