What Is Interprofessional Education And How Is It Essential For Patient Quality Outcomes? Essay

Professional programs educate students in their respective scopes of study so that they become experts in a specific health area. This can lead to confined patient care due to lack of understanding surrounding other health care professionals (HCP)1,2. The health care system is not compartmentalized, as seen through the collaboration many HCP’s engage in daily in their practice2,3,4. This concept of teamwork is paramount in providing a more holistic, patient based approach to high quality care1,2,3,4,5. One barrier to providing this level of care is the development of skills, attitudes, and understanding that helps foster environments for team based care1. To target this barrier, many educational institutions have developed inter-professional

The institute of Medicine (IOM) has defined quality healthcare as safe, effective, timely, efficient and patient-centered care that is given to an individual regardless of their race, gender, financial status or health status (Wood & Haber, 2014). Quality initiatives are designed to help maximize efficiency; decrease poor work performance and resolve workforce problems through leadership, commitment and involvement (Abdallah, 2014). Abdallah (2013) also noted that trained physicians can help with the implementation of quality culture and employee morale, and it can help with the collaboration of ACNP and physician management. According to Chorostecki et al. (2015), interprofessional (IP) care includes shared decision-making, collaborative problem solving, respect in the work field, and equal contribution among all healthcare team members. Implementing effective interprofessional collaboration can help enhance quality care in hospital, acute, home or office settings (Chorostecki et al.,

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

As time goes by, people get infected with new diseases or current prevailing diseases. Consequently, new drugs are produced in an attempt to overcome these diseases, which results in patients with complex health needs. The complexity of the patients’ healthcare therefore needs to be addressed by more than one discipline. Interprofessional collaborative care is a type of health care that involves people from different professions working together and relying on each other to provide effective care to patients. Interprofessional collaborative care is important and predominantly a focus of the health care reform because it improves healthcare outcome for the patients and reduces disagreements between different professions. I was able to experience interprofessional care when my grandma was diagnosed with cancer. The physician and the pharmacist worked together in ensuring that she got the proper medication that would not have any side effects on her. In addition, the physician would call the pharmacy every two weeks to check on my grandma’s progress and to ensure that she had picked up her medications. Both my grandma and I were grateful because we felt that our needs were taken care of appropriately. Moreover, interprofessional health care is important in a curriculum because if helps the students to be better prepared to work as a team. This is achieved by teaching students about their own profession while receiving an understanding of the other professions and the roles they

The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standard 2 Partnering with Consumers requires all health professionals to provide consumer-centred care and to design the care in partnership with the patient and the family (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in health Care, 2012). The NSQHS Standards (2012) identified patient and family-centred care and engagement as one of the national priorities. As such, in order to improve patients’ safety outcomes and reduce hospital acquired conditions and readmissions and provide client centred services, the IPE recognized the need for effective interprofessional teams to collaborate and engage patients and families by implementing IPE core structures and processes (Brewer & Jones, 2013). The Curtin University’s ICF encompasses five interprofessional capabilities: “reflection, communication, team function, conflict resolution, and role clarification” (Brewer & Jones, 2013, p. e47). The purpose of ICF is to guide and assist health care students for collaborative practice to deliver safe and high quality care, and client-centred care (Curtin University, 2011). Therefore, health science students are expected to be competent in all skills and meet the criteria outlined in Curtin University’ ICF.

Those who are admitted to hospitals nowadays either through the emergency department or elective admission usually have multiple and complex health conditions and classically require more than one health professional to address these needs. In today’s hospital settings interprofessional collaboration is being promoted as a holistic means of providing patient centred care and plays an extremely important role in healthcare. It is said to improve the delivery of healthcare by reducing morbidity and mortality by decreasing wait times, improving chronic disease management and promoting patient safety (World Health Organisation, 2010).

The results showed that this experience led to improvements in the student’s attitudes towards learning and collaborating with peers in other disciplines. (Wellmon et al., 2012) This indicates interprofessional collaboration does not only benefit on health care teams but also in the learning process for students. This partnership can enhance the all group member’s learning experience. Another literature discussed about the ethics of this practice and it stated “Interprofessional care essentially ethical. Its espoused motivation is that it promotes the well-being of the patient or beneficence, which is to do well by the patient.” (Engel & Prentice, 2013) This article also brought up the topic of possible conflicts within the collaborated group members which can be due to competition arising between members or difference in viewpoints. The viewpoint was described as by necessity and guided by the each group member’s values and beliefs which can be influence by their disciplinary knowledge and perspectives. (Engel & Prentice, 2013) This means that there may be the presence of barriers during this collaboration process since members of the team are from different fields of practice and professions which may have different values and beliefs. Within our nursing theory textbook, it mentioned that “establishing

Multidisciplinary working is an important factor when delivering healthcare to patients (Royal College of Nursing, 2006). However, failures in interprofessional collaboration have led to public inquiries for instance, the death of Peter Connelly (Jones, 2009) and the Mid Staffordshire report (Francis, 2013), highlighting improvement in collaboration is required. The Centre for the Advancement of Interprofessional Education (CAIPE) acknowledges interprofessional education as students from multiple professions, who come together; share knowledge and gain a broader understanding of the different professions (CAIPE, 2016). Interprofessional Education has been identified as an important element in the education of healthcare professionals and

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.

In order to improve the quality of patient care and ensure that the goals of care are being achieved, many settings are using the collaborative care delivery model. The collaborative “approach involves teams of health professionals working together to provide more coordinated and comprehensive care to clients,” (Kearney 2008). An interprofessional team can consist of nurses, physicians, care technologists nutritionists, counselors, physical therapists, educators, care givers and the patient. These members work together for the common purpose of enhancing the wellness of a particular patient.

Over the past ten weeks, I have developed a greater understanding of quality improvement initiatives and interprofessional care. I liked that the course focused both quality and interprofessional care. The linkage between these two topics is important, since everyone on the interprofessional care team is responsible for providing evidence-based quality care. Two topics I found interesting, that will benefit me professionally in the future, were the discussions regarding Quality Improvement Care Models and Interprofessional Collaboration. I learned about many different care models for quality improvement. The Champion Model was of particular interest, since this model supports informal leaders who a advocates for, and support evidence-based

“Interprofessional working involves complex interactions between two or more members of different professional disciplines. It is a collaborative venture in which those involved share the common purpose of developing mutually negotiated goals achieved through agreed plans which are monitored and evaluated according to agreed procedures. This requires the pooling of knowledge and expertise to facilitate joint decision making based upon shared professional viewpoints” (Barrett, Sellman & Thomas, 2005, p18). How individuals collaborate and work towards a common goal for the benefit of the patient is essential for a swift recovery.

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is the process in which different professional multidisciplinary teams (MDT) work together to positively impact healthcare. Research has discovered that issues or problems regarding IPC in practice can impact the outcome of effective patient care. Study by Devla et al., (2008) highlights the problems identified with having a negative effect on patient’s health for example; power dynamics within the MDT, lack of understanding of others roles and responsibilities, poor and limited communication, and conflicts due to a varied approach and understanding of patient care. To encourage partnership working and the development of innovative partnership approaches there is increasing emphasis on integrating understanding and knowledge of this topic within education programmes designed for all pre-registration students. These programmes were created as part of the aim to improve care and professional relationships

Teamwork is vital in healthcare.  When all participants are engaged in a program, goals are successfully achieved. Being able to communicate and work collectively as a team requires an appreciation for each other’s area of practice.  Every team member has an important role and being acknowledged provides a sense of responsibility and accountability. Essentially, inter-professional collaboration helps ensure that the patient is getting care that is not only accessible but also comprehensive.  The plan of a patients’ care includes active participation by all health care professionals working interdependently in accordance to the patient’s preferences, values and beliefs. The health care team accomplishes the goal of meeting the patient’s medical needs by delivering evidence-based practice.   To deliver quality care, the patient should always be involved.