Interprofessional Relatios: The Nurse and Other Health allied Professionals
Interprofessional collaboration in health care ad defined by World Health Organisation (WHO) is a multiple of health workers from different professional backgrounds working together with patients, families, carer ( caregivers), and communities to deliver the highest quality of care. More so interprofessional relations is often defined within healthcare as an active and ongoing partnership between professionals from diverse backgrounds with distinctive professional cultures and possibly representing different organizations so sectors working together in providing services for the benefit of healthcare users. ( Morgan, Pullon, & Mckinlay 2015)
Professionals in healthcare are increasingly encouraged to work together. Authors has suggested that developing interprofessional relations is not just the job of managers and policy makers, it also require active contributions of professionals. Thus healthcare professionals such as doctors and nurses are increasingly encouraged to work together in delivering care for patients. They do so in diverse settings such as emergency department teams in hospital grassroots networks in neighborhood care and within formalized integrated care chains.
( Atwal& Caldwell, 2002; Bagayogo et al, 2016).
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The increasing number of interprofessional practices has led to a sharp rise in academic interest in the subject of interprofessional relations. However diverse challenges and barriers; such as distinct professional domains and separate IT systems, hinder achieving smooth relations or collaborations.
Multiple author’s have tried to formulate the necessary facilitators for relation o collaborations to occur.
Thus there are no limits to the maximum and efficient improved patients care that will be gotten when nurses collaborate or relate with other health professionals in healthcare services which is however th reason interprofessional relations especially in healthcare are Paramount and cannot be overlooked or neglected. As the saying goes “” All hands must be on deck to make a light work”. A shared professional knowledge is expedient. A better understanding of their collaborative work is needed to understand the dynamics and evolution of interprofessional collaboration or relation.
Although therapists have been included as participants in interprofessional research e.g therehave been few studies vof the therapist nurse interface written from a therapist perspective. The limited body of research that has been identified is based on small sample sizes. Attending meetings can be difficult for nurses due to their continuous multiple caseload and time constraints and they report feelings of discomfort and intimidation, and difficulties asserting counter views in the context.
They also experience professional conflict with regard to what to present at the meeting responding to non- verbal indicators and information pertaining as less clinical relevant than the contributions made by other professionals. Condensing reporting restricts their opportunity to demonstrate the expertise that is evident in nurse to nurse handover.
Communication Between Therapist and Nurses Working in Inpatient interprofessional Teams:
It is based on the professional and personal values of a nurse. Collegialityis njn- hierarchical and relates to mutual relationship between nurses, reflecting values such as equality, justice, trust and respect. Relations and collegiality is based on open confidential, emphatic, and dialogic communication and it is demonstrated in autonomy and decision- making.
Nurses work closely with patients and can be responsible for their long term care. They also have the main responsibility for ensuring that critical care links are maintained, providing information to colleagues during sift handovers and managing patients transfers between units and institutions.
Benefits Of Interprofessional relations in Healthcare
Modern healthcare is a team sport, especially in hospitals. The typical inpatient experience features a cadre of health professionals working together to deliver quality care and stellar patient experience. Except how much are they actually working together? Unless they have regular meetings or secure digital communication tools. That’s a problem because as medicine becomes increasingly specialized, care teams become more crowded, and interprofessional relations in healthcare is more important than ever.
On could argue that’s what hospital teams have always done. But interprofessional relations is about more that data sharing and efficient communication between nursed and physicians. It require all care team members to engage with the patients and with each other, and it requires leaders to put their egos aside for the good of the patient.
The question is why is interprofessional relations essential? Because when one create a collaborative culture ( and put communication strategies and technology in place to support culture).
1. It Reduce Medical Errors:
In healthcare communication gap can have costly consequences from missed symptoms to misdiagnosis to medication errors. In fact medical errors cause up to 250000 deaths each year. According to John Hopkins, it’s the third leading cause of death in US. It’s easy to see how accidents can happen, with multiple doctors prescribing multiple medications and numerous nurses delivering those medications. EHR notes can help but clinical communication is vital. That means having a group conversation , looping in a pharmacist for some interprofessional relations and ensuring nurses have all the information they need to treat patients safely.
2. Start Treatment Faster:
Much healthcare is a waiting game. Patients wait for physicians, while physicians wait for other physicians to provide consultations, or for radiology to send back lab results. Communication delay frustrates patients and waste valuable time, giving conditions time to worsen.
3. Reduce Inefficiencies and Healthcare Costs:
Interprofessional relations in healthcare helps to prevent medication errors, improve the patients experience and deliver better patient outcomes, all of which can reduce healthcare costs. It also help hospitals save money by shoring up workflow redundancies and operational inefficiencies.
4. Improve Staff Relations and Job Satisfaction:
Every health profession has it’s own subculture, knowledge base, and philosophy. When you add power structure some members’ voices get prioritized over others. That’s not good for the patient or for the staff moral. Interprofessional relations levels the playing field and knowledges that everyone plays a vital role on the care team. That sense of community and camaraderie can also boost staff retention and recruitment.
Conclusion:
Workers in most industries are more connected than ever. Whether they need face-to -face conversation with a colleague across the country via video conferring or want to text an update to a customer, all they need is smartphone.
many healthcare professionals have this experience everywhere except work, because their employers haven’t invested in a HIPAA Compliant Communication Platform. In all essence it is very important that interprofessional relations are encouraged and adequately adopted; especially the nurse and other health and allied Professionals; this is because it bridges gaps, negotiate overlaps and create spaces. It’s importance cannot just be over emphasized.
Abdullahi Suleiman a Certified Registered Nurse based in Nigeria, an Entrepreneur and Also a Blogger, passionate about Community Development and Cosmetic Nursing
