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The experience of inter professional collaboration in an area of practice

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A 2,000 word essay, considering the experience of inter-professional collaboration in your area of clinical practice For the purpose of this essay, the importance of interprofessional working (IPW) in effective patient care will be discussed, along with the challenges and constraints. A patient case study will be used for example purposes; all names and places will be changed in line with Nursing Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008) guidelines. According to The British Medical Association (2005), interprofessional collaboration is loosely defined as professionals working together to improve the quality of patient care. The insurgence into creating a well-oiled professional work force is well documented throughout healthcare over the last …show more content…

The fundamental ideological differences that occur between healthcare professionals can cause problems in interprofessional collaboration (Caldwell, 2003). Due to each profession having struggled to gain its own identity, each area now has its own set of ideologies related to common experiences, skills, norms and values (Hall, 2005). This can make it difficult to work as a multidisciplinary team as the idea of a goal is dissimilar. The issue of communication is an important one due to the effects that reverberate into patient care. In 2003, the Joint Commission on the Accreditation of Healthcare Organisations (JCAHO) stated that communication failures contribute to 60% of incidental events (Doran, 2005). Leonard et al (2004) believe communication issues could be drastically reduced by creating a ‘common mental model’, thus meaning all members of staff are using the same clinical language and working towards the same goal. Research carried out by Westli (2010) displayed that teams performing more efficiently showed ‘more effective information exchange and communication’. Empirical evidence found in this study highlighted that advanced levels of teamwork skills increased levels of performance, therefore increasing patient care. Role overlap and confusion is another aspect that may reduce effective interprofessional collaboration. The DH (2000) issued a supplement that described professionals having a lack of clarity

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