Week 2 Discussion: Interprofessional Collaboration Strategies

Week 2 Discussion: Interprofessional Collaboration Strategies Q: In today's changing healthcare environment, it is more important than ever for professional nurses to be skilled in collaborating with professionals from other healthcare disciplines. What communication strategies can professional nurses use to specifically promote collaboration with other healthcare disciplines and professionals? - How can we enhance teamwork with other nurses? - What are the barriers to teamwork and interprofessional collaboration? How can we overcome those barriers? - How can we safely delegate patient care tasks? Why do some nurses NOT delegate effectively? A: As you stated within the question for this discussion, it is absolutely more important than ever for us nurses to be skilled when collaborating with professional within other healthcare departments. In The Essentials of Baccalaureate Education for Professional Nursing Practice, it states that “effective communication and collaboration among healthcare professionals is imperative to providing patient-centered care.” (AACN, 2008, pp. 22, para 1). In order for a patient to be treated for one or several conditions simultaneously, it is very important for there to be “comprehensive knowledge and above all collaboration” throughout the entire team (Susič, 2017). Communication strategies should always be in place within a facility. Communication can be defined in the Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies as interacting “effectively with patients, families, and colleagues, fostering mutual respect and shared decision making, to enhance patient satisfaction and health outcomes.” Our textbook gives several strategies that can be used to ensure there is effective communication in collaboration. The strategies stated in our textbook are the following: reporting clinical information requiring immediate attention/action, SBAR reporting, call-out, check-back, and hand-off (Hood, 2017. I have used SBAR reporting within my clinical experience during the nursing program. SBAR stands for Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation/Request. I found this method effective and easy to follow when reporting to another healthcare professional. There are SBAR papers you can fill out or you can hold the information in your head from working with the patient for a decent amount of time. The reporting for SBAR is exactly how it sounds. You start with the situation which is what is going on right now with the patient. Then you move onto the background which is the patient’s primary diagnosis, admission date, medical and surgical history, and any treatments the patient has received thus far. After the background comes the assessment information, which includes the patient’s vitals and the nurse’s complete assessment. Last is the recommendation section which includes transferring and suggested labs or orders As nurses we can put in effort to enhance teamwork with other nursing faculty/staff. You don’t need to get on your computer or phone to research ways you can participate in enhancing teamwork. You can simple start by helping out other nurses when they have a lot going on, a difficult patient, and so on. When there is a new nurse, help them with getting familiar with the unit, policies in place, or even with starting off as a nurse. Being the best nurse you can be goes hand in hand with putting in the effort for effective teamwork. There are all different kinds of possible barriers for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration. One very simple barrier may be inexperience. An inexperienced nurse isn’t used to communicating in the most efficient way simply because they’re new and have to get into the groove of things. Effective communication isn’t something that will just happen. It takes time and practice to get to that point. Understaffing is another barrier than can make teamwork and interprofessional collaboration difficult. With understaffing, it may be difficult for a nurse, physician, or other healthcare professional to provide teamwork when they’re so busy with their work load. Sometimes, healthcare professionals may have different opinions or points of views and this can cause a barrier. If the healthcare professionals aren’t willing to be flexible and listen as well as understand the other’s opinion or point of view, teamwork and collaboration is hindered. We can overcome these barriers by respecting one another’s opinions, point of views, knowledge, and profession. We need to ensure that we are communicating with one another effectively and efficiently. Delegation can be tricky for some nurses. As stated in our lesson for week two, “Professional judgment is used when nurses delegate tasks to unlicensed assistive personnel (UAPS).” (CCN, 2018). Some nurses are unaware of what they can and cannot delegate. “[The] judgment is based on the nurse’s knowledge of the nursing law and rules in the state where he or she practices.” (CCN, 2018). Because some nurses are unaware of what they can and cannot delegate, they may end up delegating ineffectively. A simple way to ensure safe delegation practices is for the nurse to get familiar with the nursing law and rules of the state in which he or she practices. Alysha Rotolo Resources: American Association of Colleges of Nursing. (2008). The essentials of baccalaureate education for professional nursing practice. Retrieved from Chamberlain College of Nursing. (2018). NR-351 Week 2: Communication, Teamwork, and Collaboration [Online lesson]. Downers Grove, IL: DeVry Education Group. Hood, L. J. (2017). Leddy& Pepper's conceptual bases of professional nursing (8th ed.). Philadelphia, PA: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins. Massachusetts Department of Higher Education Nursing Initiative. (2016). Massachusetts Nurse of the Future Nursing Core Competencies© Registered Nurse. Retrieved from Susič, T. P. (2017). The family medicine reference clinic: an example of interprofessional collaboration within a healthcare team. Obzornik Zdravstvene Nege, 51(2), 112-115. doi:10.14528/snr.2017.51-2.179