The Importance Of Communication Within An Interprofessional Team In Health Care

Communication and Interprofessional Perspective in Health Care

Discuss how communication within an interprofessional team could affect collaborative working?

The communication with the other member of the health care profession are becoming more and more difficult as the cognitive map that is developed during the professional education as well as socialization are becoming more embedded. It was seen that the despite the improvements that were made recently in the interpersonal understanding, confusion and conflict regarding the nature of the roles that the people in the various departments perform are hampering the interprofessional communication among the various health care professional (O’Daniel and Rosenstein, 2008).

Communication is the process by which the people impart or interchange thoughts, opinions, and information by means of speech, signs or writing. It is important to know that communication is not only in the verbal form, most of the communication is done in the by means of body language, tone and attitude of the people. It needs to be seen that if there is a poor interprofessional communication then it will lead to decreased quality of work in the organization (NOTTE and SKOLNIK, 2010). In the pharmacy section it is seen that if there are poor interprofessional communication then there are chances that decrease the quality of the patient care, and there are increase in the medical errors. Moreover it is seen that if there is lack of interprofessional communication then there are chances that it will create poor job satisfaction and burnout.

Collaboration in the pharmacy sector or the health care profession is seen as a way by which they assume complementary roles and they work together cooperatively. The people in collaboration share the responsibilities of the work, make decisions and they try to solve the problems associated with the work (Priest et al., 2005). They also try to formulate plans as well as carry them out in order to care for the patients. It is very essential for the nurses, physicians, as well as the other team members to have collaboration so that they are able to know the type of the work that they carry out. Thus it will enhance in the process of decision making.

It is very important to understand that there are certain hurdles that are there in the collaboration of the people in the organizations. These are additional time required in the collaboration of the team. More over there are certain other factors like clashing perceptions of the team members, lack of awareness as well as confidence of the members. It needs to be seen that these hurdles can be overcome if the members of the team have an open attitude and there are feeling of mutual trust as well as respect (NOTTE and SKOLNIK, 2010). It is seen that the improved team work as well as communication are important factors that needs to be undertaken in order to improve the job satisfaction as well as clinical effectiveness.

It is seen that the extent to which the health care professionals work together and the way that they affect the quality of the work that they provide. If there are problems in the way the people communicate with each other in carrying out their work then it might in turn affect the quality of the treatment that they offer to the people. It was seen that there were many poor communication as well as poor team work in the health care practices as a result of the common practices that were prevalent. It is seen that the people does not view this as important, they consider them as repetitions of the poor communications (PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST®: PATIENT-CENTRED COLLABORATIVE CARE, 2007).

The components of successful teamwork

There are various advantages to the effective communitarian and collaboration, like there are improved flows of information, there are more successful interventions, and there is improved safety and enhanced morale of the employees. It is seen through this that the families of the patients are satisfied by the way they treat the patients and there are decreased lengths of their stay in the hospitals (Ispub.com, 2015).

It is seen in many cases that there are many health professionals who are a part of the team but they work autonomously. It is seen that the effort to improve the safety of the health care as well as the quality of the health care is hindered by the fact that there are barriers in the communication as well as collaboration. Though it needs to be seen that though the organizations are unique in nature but the problems of lack of communication and the collaboration are same in almost all the organizations (Bose and Singh, 2008). There are certain problems like the stress in the role of the individuals and unable to understand the roles that they need to play are sometimes in doubt (Shumway, 2004). There are cases when there are increased levels of complexity in the knowledge as well as the skills that are required for the care of the aged patients with chronic diseases requires an increase in the specialization of the health care experts. Thus it is seen often that the healthcare experts are more specialized in doing similar jobs rather than exchange in their disciplines.

Often it is seen that the staffs that sees poor performances in their peers and other team members do not speak up in the fear that they might be retaliated. They also fear that it will do no good to them. The relationship between the individuals who provide patient care might have a prevailing influence on how as well as even if significant information is being communicated (Solomon and Geddes, 2009). Study has shown that the delay in the patient care as well as frequent problems from unsettled dispute is frequently the by-product of the disagreement between the nurse and the physician. There are drawbacks in the fact that health care professional are trained in the in the old style of caring the patients where they were not given the value of interprofessional communication and the advantages associated with it. Thus they seem to be reluctant of the new way of carrying out their task.

It is to be seen that due to the increased complexity in the medical health care along with the limited human resources, it is important to create an environment where the individuals are able to speak as well as express the concerns. It was seen that the radiologic technologists settled on the fact that the care of the patients would be enhanced if there is an increase in the level of interprofessional communication as well as collaboration (Hartrick Doane et al., 2012).

From this we are able see that when a team wishes to commune intricate information in a small time period, it is very helpful to make use of techniques where the communication is structured so as to ensure accuracy. Structured communication systems can serve up the same function where by the guidelines of the clinical practice does in assisting the practitioners in order to make the decisions and take the action (Tay, Ang and Hegney, 2012). The research from the aviation and the wilderness fire fighting is very useful in the health care system as because they all have settings where by there is a huge inconsistency in the circumstances, there is need to adapt the processes rapidly, a quick changing of the knowledge base, and the highly skilled professionals who have to use skilled judgment in the dynamic settings (The impact and effectiveness of interprofessional communication, 2015). The ability of the people to communicate as well as function properly and effectively as a part of the team, is one of the foremost skill that is designed to enhance the quality of the teamwork and the enhance the individual performance.

Conclusions

It can be concluded that the effective clinical practice should not concentrate only on the issues of technological system, but also on the human factor (Thompson, 2007). It was seen in the case that good communication supports teamwork and helps in the prevention of errors. It is important to see that the health care organizations must assess the possible system for the poor communication and be meticulous about contributing programs as well as outlets to assist in promoting team collaboration. Thus by addressing to this issue, it can be seen that the health care organizations have a chance to greatly improve the clinical outcomes (How interprofessional learning improves care, 2015).

It was seen that the interprofessional communication which is poor was seen to be a foundation for the occupational stress. Furthermore it was seen that the participants professed that by increasing both the quantity and the quality of communication, it would increase the job satisfaction of the people. it was seen in some cases that the perceptions differed very little on the basis of age, facility size, educational degree, gender, as well as years of work experience the people has.

References

Bose, S. and Singh, V. (2008). Barriers to effective communication in developing world intensive care units. Critical Care Medicine, 36(10), p.2961.

Hartrick Doane, G., Stajduhar, K., Causton, E., Bidgood, D. and Cox, A. (2012). End-of-life Care and Interprofessional Communication: Not Simply a Matter of “More”. Health and Interprofessional Practice, 1(3).

How interprofessional learning improves care. (2015). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.nursingtimes.net/Journals/2013/05/30/p/q/j/290513-How-interprofessional-learning-improves-care.pdf [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Ispub.com, (2015). Internet Scientific Publications. [online] Available at: https://ispub.com/IJRA/12/2/4895 [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

NOTTE, C. and SKOLNIK, N. (2010). Teamwork Is Key to a Successful Transition. Family Practice News, 40(10), pp.50-51.

NOTTE, C. and SKOLNIK, N. (2011). Teamwork Is Key to Successful EHR Transition. Skin & Allergy News, 42(6), p.56.

O’Daniel, M. and Rosenstein, A. (2008). Professional Communication and Team Collaboration. Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (US). [online] Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK2637/ [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Priest, H., Sawyer, A., Roberts, P. and Rhodes, S. (2005). A survey of interprofessional education in communication skills in health care programmes in the UK. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 19(3), pp.236-250.

PUTTING PATIENTS FIRST®: PATIENT-CENTRED COLLABORATIVE CARE. (2007). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://fhs.mcmaster.ca/surgery/documents/CollaborativeCareBackgrounderRevised.pdf [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Shumway, J. (2004). Components of quality: competence, leadership, teamwork, continuing learning and service. Med Teach, 26(5), pp.397-399.

Solomon, P. and Geddes, E. (2009). An interprofessional e-learning module on health care ethics. CJIC, pp.1-4.

Tay, L., Ang, E. and Hegney, D. (2012). Nurses’ perceptions of the barriers in effective communication with inpatient cancer adults in Singapore. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 21(17-18), pp.2647-2658.

The impact and effectiveness of interprofessional communication. (2015). 1st ed. [ebook] Available at: https://www.rcn.org.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0004/78718/003091.pdf [Accessed 11 Apr. 2015].

Thompson, D. (2007). Interprofessionalism in health care: Communication with the patient’s identified family. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 21(5), pp.561-563.