The Essay On Effective Communication In Interprofessional Teams Is Crucial For Collaborative Nursing.

Discuss how communication within an interprofessional team could affect collaborative working (as a nurse)?

The healthcare system warrants development of delivery strategies involving multidisciplinary approaches with the intent of reducing medical errors in context to enhancing patients’ health and safety patterns across the globe. These dynamic delivery systems require development of interprofessional teams to increase the quality of care through effective communication while ensuring flawless administration of care and therapy to the patients’ population. The evidence based research literature reveals the probability of potential clinical errors occurring due to deficit in effective communication across healthcare teams. The increasing morbidities in healthcare facilities due to serious flaws in medication administration and quality of patients care are the direct outcome of clinical inefficiency of the healthcare staff in context to the lack of effective communication between the interprofessional teams. Indeed, consistent patterns of written and verbal communication among the multidisciplinary healthcare professionals lead to collaborative working with the allocation of complementary roles between the interprofessional team and prompt resolution of healthcare challenges through the implementation of good clinical practice and effective clinical decision making for proactively executing patients care plans in the clinical setting.  Indeed, interprofessional communication corresponds to the uninterrupted interaction between healthcare providers, medical students and nurses of multiple clinical specialties and patients’ community for generating mutual trust with the intent of collaboratively rendering healthcare services in a responsible manner.

Keywords: Interprofessional, patients, safety, communication, collaborative, nurse Blair & Jansen (2015) reveal the importance of organizational communication to facilitate strategic thinking among the nursing professionals. Indeed, effective interprofessional communication assists in nurturing the instincts pertaining to leadership skills among the nursing fraternity. Kelly & Tazbir (2013, p. 212) describe the utility of individualized interprofessional communication by the registered nurses in context to delegating patients’ responsibilities to their nursing assistive personnel in the clinical setting. The effective communication between the registered nursing professionals and nursing assistive personnel is a two way process warranting the provision for assistive staff in context to asking questions and seeking clarification regarding the delegated assignment. The cultural appropriateness of the interprofessional communication is highly warranted in acquiring safe professional judgment following the care seekers requirement. The clinical literature reveals the requirement of effective written, electronic and verbal communication between medical professionals in context to providing appropriate direction to the clinical information for generating precision in medical decision making in relation to administration of qualitative care to the patients’ population.

Healthcare teams work with the common objectives of providing coordinated care to the patients with mutual collaboration. This synergistic collaboration is possible through effective communication between the teams for generating positive attitudes and trust between the individuals undergoing care and therapy in the clinical setting. The overlapping roles of various healthcare professionals with the nursing fraternity warrant close coordination between the non physician personnel (including nurses), social workers, lab technicians and physicians for effectively rendering coordinated care to the target population (Reeves et al, 2010). Basavanthappa (2008, p. 620) reveals the association of community health nurses with other public health workers to systematically investigate the patterns of health and diseases across various geographical locations. Indeed, the clinical data collection and analysis requires interprofessional communication for avoiding any probability of random errors leading to inappropriate medical decision making, thereby attributing to the flaws in patients care and therapy by the healthcare professionals. The Health Visitors Act (HVA) formulated in 1979 attempted collaborating nursing professionals with midwives for delivering coordinated care and assistance to the pregnant patients (Thomas, Pollard & Sellman, 2014, p. 92). This interprofessional bonding prescribed by HVA is possible by organizing education programs for enhancing communication between midwives, nurses and obstetricians with the intent of antagonizing the professional gaps and establishing harmonious interprofessional relationships for delivering holistic patients centered care across the medical facilities.     

Consequences of Poor Communication

Bullock, Clark & Rycroft-Malone (2012, p. 464) advocate the contention regarding implications of effective communications of nursing professionals with patients and their relatives in context to explaining the details of the proposed care and therapy and allowing them to take informed decisions regarding choice of treatment following the medical necessities. The evidence based clinical literature emphasizes the importance of effective interprofessional communication at the time of patients’ admission in relation to identifying key concerns requiring nursing intervention following the reported clinical indications. Indeed, the interprofessional approaches in context to effective communication between the healthcare teams highly warranted for maintaining accuracy in medical decision making following the principles of evidence based practice. Mooi (2010, p. 131) describes various stages of patient’s journey in the emergency medical center following the clinical indication. These stages include booking, triage assessment, initial intervention, examination, orders, diagnosis, treatment, health promotion strategies, documentation and discharge from the medical center. Indeed, multispecialty teams including emergency nurse practitioners remain actively engaged with patient during each of the stages when he/she enters the medical facility, receives medical intervention and finally discharged following the needful action by the medical professionals. The effective communication between emergency nurse practitioners and patients during their urgent care visits assists them in acclimatizing with the triage system and helps the caretakers in formulating appropriate medical intervention following the clinical assessment. For example, the physician diagnosing the clinical condition must effectively communicate the diagnosis to nursing professionals for helping them in configuring assistive approaches following the clinical goals in administering appropriate supportive care and medications to the target population. Similarly, the effective communication between physicians, pharmacists and nursing professionals required in terms of generating precision in clinical prescription for its accurate interpretation by nurses in context to administering appropriate dosages to the patients within the stipulated timeframe.

Goodman & Clemow (2010) emphasize the importance of critical analysis of clinical data while utilizing interprofessional communication by nursing professionals to facilitate patient focused decision making in the clinical setting. Indeed, the qualified nurses require compassionate interaction with the fellow professionals and patients while maintaining their dignity to efficiently render nursing care for enhancing the health outcomes following the evidence based nursing practice in the medical facility. The evidence based clinical literature reveals the role of effective communication between diabetes nurse specialists and their patients in potentially assisting them for managing and controlling their blood glucose levels (Littlechild & Smith, 2013). Furthermore, the inpatient nurses require coordinating with the other healthcare assistants, surgeons and clinical psychologists for efficiently rendering postoperative care to the patients undergoing surgical intervention. The clinical studies conducted in a London based hospital reveal the lack of coordinated working by healthcare professionals in the absence of interprofessional collaboration between the healthcare teams (Reeves et al, 2010a). Indeed, the interprofessional collaboration between primary care physician, nurses, therapists, social workers and other ancillary staff in the inpatient facility required to surpass the inadequacies in medical management and challenges in optimizing the care and therapy to the admitted patients. Keating, McDermott & Montgomery (2013, p. 9) reveal the significance of interprofessional communication processes for enhancing patients centered care and treatment in the healthcare facilities. Acton (2011) explains the interprofessional collaboration in nursing practice in context to resolving complex organizational matters and environmental structures through effective team interaction. Nash (2014, p. 43) describes the importance of interprofessional communication in enhancing the continuity of care through treatment and diagnostic investigations. The written communication processed by nursing professionals’ across medical facilities in United Kingdom follows the standards prescribed by UK Nursing and Midwifery Council, as evidenced by the research literature. Ferrell, Coyle & Paice (2015) discuss the effectiveness of interprofessional collaboration in context to integration of palliative care facilities for extending care and therapy to the patients affected by terminal conditions. The evidence based clinical literature reveals the potential deficits in interprofessional communication during patients handling, thereby affecting the safety of individuals receiving care and treatment by the medical fraternity (Thistlethwaite, 2012, p. 31).

Benefits of Effective Communication

Conclusion

The World Health Organization (WHO) asserts that the multi-professional learning environment facilitates efficient interprofessional collaboration for enhancing patients care and therapy in the clinical setting. Indeed, the enhancement of teamwork through effective interprofessional communication between healthcare professionals induces improvement in patients’ outcomes through qualitative care and flawless medical decision making. The interprofessional learning of the medical students highly warranted for enhancing their interpersonal skills and personalities in context to improving the quality of care for attaining better health outcomes among the treated patients. The medical fraternities require evaluating the institutional hierarchies in context to communication deficit leading to deprivation and inadequacies in patients care and therapy by the nursing professionals and physicians. Furthermore, the need of interprofessional learning for enhancing patients care and safety requires careful consideration by healthcare professionals with the intent of generating precision in medical decision making with reference to patients medical necessities. The healthcare professionals require understanding their individualized roles and responsibilities for delivering qualitative care and support to the patients’ population. Furthermore, the professionals must understand their collaborative responsibilities and importance of effective communication between their teams to avoid any bias or error in the flow of clinical information in relation to the clinical assessment. The advantages and constraints of interprofessional teamwork through effective communication must be understood by nursing professionals and other healthcare workers to ascertain retrieval of better health outcomes while minimizing the probability of treatment bias.

References

Acton, A. (2011). Issues in Nursing by Specialty: 2011 Edition. Georgia: Scholarly-Editions^TM.

Basavanthappa, B. T., (2008). Community Health Nursing (2^nd edn.). New Delhi: Jaypee.

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Ferrell, B.R., Coyle, N., & Paice, J. (2015). Oxford Textbook of Palliative Nursing. New York: Oxford.

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Keating, M.A., McDermott, A.M., & Montgomery, K (2013). Patient-Centred Health Care: Achieving Co-ordination, Communication and Innovation. UK: Palgrave Macmillan.

Kelly, P., & Tazbir, J. (2013). Essentials of Nursing Leadership & Management (3^rd edn.). USA: Cengage.

Littlechild, B., Smith, R. (2013). A Handbook for Interprofessional Practice in the Human Services: Learning to Work Together. UK: Routledge.

Mooi, S. (2010). Clinical Judgement And Decision-Making In Nursing And Inter-Professional Healthcare. England: Open University Press.

Nash, M. (2014). Physical Health and Well-Being in Mental Health Nursing: Clinical Skills for Practice. England: Open University Press.

Reeves, S., Lewin, S., Sherry, E., & Zwarenstein, M. (2010). Interprofessional Teamwork for Health and Social Care. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.

Reeves, S., Lewin, S., Sherry, E., & Zwarenstein, M. (2010a). Interprofessional Teamwork for Health and Social Care. United Kingdom: Wiley-Blackwell.

Thistlethwaite, J.E. (2012). Values-Based Interprofessional Collaborative Practice: Working Together in Health Care. UK: Cambridge.

Thomas, J., Pollard, K.C., & Sellman, D. (2014). Interprofessional Working in Health and Social Care: Professional Perspectives (2^nd edn.). UK: Palgrave-Macmillan