Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
According to American Nurses Association (2010) Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice, collaboration is defined as, “a professional healthcare partnership grounded in a reciprocal and respectful recognition and acceptance of: each partner’s unique expertise, power, and sphere of influence and responsibilities; commonality of goals; the mutual safeguarding of the legitimate interest of each party; and the advantages of such a relationship”.(p. 64). Collaboration amongst health care providers is very crucial in providing quality care to patients. Integration of disciplinary teams, improves communication, coordination, and most importantly, the safety and quality of patient care. It provides interaction between team members allowing them to bring their individual expertise skills and experiences to function more effectively in pursuing goals to provide high quality health care.Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
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In this paper, I will differentiate between intra- and interdisciplinary teams and where the patient fits within these teams. I will also describe communication skills held by successful healthcare teams. I will then explain the role of teams in nursing and patient empowerment. Lastly, I will discuss the role of teams in professional nursing development.
Difference between intra- and interdisciplinary teams
An intradisciplinary team consist of professionals from a single discipline that includes team members from various levels of education and expertise within that discipline. An example of intradisciplinary in healthcare, would be nurse-to-nurse collaboration in efforts of achieving goals of optimal patient care within nursing practice.
Communication is fundamental in medical practice and forms an integral part of healthcare. Those who endeavor to advance effective healthcare cannot neglect communication. In addition, given the serious nature of the healthcare environment’s demands, collaborative communication is crucial (Fowler, 2008). This implies that effective communication means should, therefore, be identified so as to open and maintain clear communication channels within and between disciplines. Intradisciplinary communication may be defined as the communication occurring between professionals within a particular discipline (Basavanthappa, 2011). In this context, this means communication between nurses. Interdisciplinary communication means communication between professionals from different disciplines (Winowiecki, Alkema, Baptista, Comita, King, Lothes et al. 2011,). This implies communication between nurses and physicians. This paper examines how communication and collaboration between intra and interdisciplinary teams impacts on nursing as well as on patient outcomes. In addition, the paper discusses how the patient and the individual nurse fit into intra and interdisciplinary team collaborations in terms of development or empowerment.Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Today, healthcare involves a number of interfaces as well as patient handoffs among many healthcare practitioners who have varying educational levels and occupational training. For example, a patient may interact with more than 50 employees such as nurses, technicians, physicians and others, all of whom must communicate between themselves for achievement of desired patient outcomes. Lack of communication opens the health care process to medical errors which have the potential to cause harm. In today’s healthcare systems, lack of proper communication has proved to be a pervasive problem. It is usually the root cause of medication errors, wrong-site surgeries, and delays in treatment.
Ideally, intra and interdisciplinary communication in healthcare should always be present in all institutions. However, there are barriers to communication. Most healthcare professionals prefer to work autonomously. Even though they might belong to a team, these healthcare professionals may find barriers to communication and collaboration because of poor social, organizational and relational structures. Culture, language (Pringle, 2005)Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
There are different ways through which intra and interdisciplinary communication can be enhanced in the healthcare sector. One of the means through which this can be done is through recordkeeping documentation (Mandeville, Tschannen, Yakel & Keenan, 2005). This facilitates the flow of information to support the quality, continuity and safety of health care. Record keeping systems serve various purposes such as fulfilling legal requirements; accountability; financial billing and accreditation. For the patient, when there is effective intra and interdisciplinary communication through record-keeping, it is possible to follow written records indicating health progress as well as financial billing. The patient or their family members are able to plan accordingly.
Another means through which various professionals in healthcare can communicate is through face-to-face verbal communication. This can be in a formal or informal setting. Two or more healthcare professionals may engage in intra or interdisciplinary communication regarding a patient’s health status or course of action. The professionals may also involve the patient or their representatives in a collaborative effort seeking to inform their decision. This enables the healthcare professionals to obtain a better perspective than would be the case if one of them were acting autonomously. Such communication would also eliminate medical mistakes and delays (Rosenstein & Daniel, 2005).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
There are various benefits associated with collaborative communication within the healthcare field. Through a collaborative effort, medical professionals are able to define problems better and to decide on goals. This is because through an exchange of ideas, they can obtain the best perception on the problem. Collaboration also enables easier and faster gathering of information regarding problems. Intradisciplinary communication and collaboration enables the different approaches informed from different disciplines to coalesce towards solving a common problem. Conflict management is also done more effectively through different approaches and perceptions.
There are various strategies for enhancing communication and collaboration in healthcare. A culture of intra and interdisciplinary communication can be cultivated in different ways. For example, creating several opportunities for professionals to interact is one of the approaches. This can be achieved by encouraging collaborative rounds, open dialogue and creating intra and interdisciplinary task forces to discuss common problems. Another way is by developing and implementing standards, procedures and policies. These are stipulations that guide communication and engagements between medical professionals in the medical field.Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Conclusion
Communication is an integral part of healthcare. For medical professionals to be effective in their work; to avoid delays and medical mistakes, they should engage in both intra and interdisciplinary communication. Intradisciplinary communication involves professionals within the same discipline while interdisciplinary communication involves professionals from different disciplines or occupational training. Patients can benefit immensely from effective and collaborative communication in the healthcare environment. This is because effective communication ensures that medical services are not delayed. Delayed medical services may have severe implications on the health of the patient. Additionally, communication reduces the likelihood of medical mistakes such as wrong medication or wrong site surgeries. Collaborative communication in healthcare environment is, therefore, a necessity and should be adopted in all healthcare institutions. This may be done by cultivating the culture of collaboration, open dialogue, creating intra and interdisciplinary task forces as well as adopting standards and policies that favor collaborative communication.Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Healthcare Teams and Collaboration
In contemporary nursing practice, collaborative teams deliver healthcare. It is difficult for a healthcare facility to implement collaborative healthcare delivery due to the fact that collaboration has different healthcare providers and work processes. For collaborative healthcare delivery to be effective, healthcare providers must have a clear understanding of their roles, responsibilities and competencies in relation to other healthcare professions. This would help in managing uncertainty and ambiguity. It would also enable them to work more effectively with other providers in accessing, planning, providing care to the patient. Lack of proper coordination or communication across collaborative teams would lead to inefficient use of healthcare resources. It would also result in interruptions and disruptions in communication. It may lead to serious adverse effects and medical errors (Kuziemsky & Varpio, 2010).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Intradisciplinary Teams and Interdisciplinary Teams
There may be collaboration between interdisciplinary teams and intradisciplinary teams. An interdisciplinary team comprises of members in different healthcare professions. Therefore, an interdisciplinary team may comprise of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, and specialists. Members of the interdisciplinary team have knowledge on different healthcare fields. They use their combined knowledge to improve patient outcomes. The members of an interdisciplinary team have a common goal. For example, an interdisciplinary team may be formed to deal with a case on a mentally ill patient. On the other hand, an intradisciplinary team comprises of people in a single professions. Therefore, an intradisciplinary team may be made up of solely nurses, dentists, or surgeons. An intradisciplinary team helps in provide adequate care to the patient. The patient is the major focus of both interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams. The teams strive to improve patient outcomes (Kuziemsky & Varpio, 2010).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
The major differences between interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams is the fact that in an intradisciplinary team all professionals belong to the same area of expertise and work towards the achievement of a common goal. On the other hand, an interdisciplinary team comprises of professionals from different areas of expertise who work towards the achievement of a common goal. In an intradisciplinary team, the professions can help each other and cover the mistakes of other members. This improves the quality of their performance. However, in an interdisciplinary team, the professionals work in a different manner. Effective communication is the major factor that helps in improving the quality of patient care. An intradisciplinary team encourages innovation in a certain field since it brings together professionals in the same field. On the other hand, interdisciplinary teams lead to the formation of innovative approaches as the experts are from different fields. Finally, an intradisciplinary team provides a linkage between healthcare workers in the same profession. On the other hand, an interdisciplinary team provides a linkage between professions in different fields (Kuziemsky & Varpio, 2010).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
The major differences between interdisciplinary and intradisciplinary teams is the fact that in an intradisciplinary team all professionals belong to the same area of expertise and work towards the achievement of a common goal. On the other hand, an interdisciplinary team comprises of professionals from different areas of expertise who work towards the achievement of a common goal. In an intradisciplinary team, the professions can help each other and cover the mistakes of other members. This improves the quality of their performance. However, in an interdisciplinary team, the professionals work in a different manner. Effective communication is the major factor that helps in improving the quality of patient care. An intradisciplinary team encourages innovation in a certain field since it brings together professionals in the same field. On the other hand, interdisciplinary teams lead to the formation of innovative approaches as the experts are from different fields. Finally, an intradisciplinary team provides a linkage between healthcare workers in the same profession. On the other hand, an interdisciplinary team provides a linkage between professions in different fields (Kuziemsky & Varpio, 2010).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Communication Skills
Communication is vital in the success of any team. Intradisciplinary and interdisciplinary teams must work in a collaborative environment in order to achieve their goals. For the teams to be success, they must possess various communication skills. There must be collaboration among the healthcare professionals. There must also be coordination in planning, determination of the goals, problem solving, and power to make decisions. Collaboration among the healthcare professionals help in reducing the ideological differences that may exist. This is vital in ensuring the success of interdisciplinary teams. In an interdisciplinary team, nurses have extensive knowledge and decision making ability on the diagnosis on a patient. They may formulate various interventions to improve patient’s outcomes. An interdisciplinary team enables patients to have direct contact with the nurse or physician. Therefore, collaboration among the nurses or other medical professionals is vital in improving the health outcomes of nurses (Poulton & West, 1999).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Nurses and other medical professionals must work together to ensure they have a common goal, plan and problem solving responsibility. This requires nurses and other medical practitioners to coordinate their activities. This enables them to channel their efforts towards activities that would ultimately improve the patient’s health.Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Role of Teams in nursing Empowerment and Patient Empowerment
Teams play a vital role in the empowerment of patients and nurses. Empowerment of nurses and patients leads to positive results in healthcare. It improves the performance of nurses. It also encourages patients to get better. Managers of healthcare facilities should acknowledge the role empowerment to promote and retain nurses. Empowerment increases job satisfaction and the work environment of the nurses. Work empowerment and work engages constitute the above forms of empowerment. Work engagement refers to the attitude of an employee towards job-related activities. It is related to the personal mental status of an employee towards work. Healthcare givers should empower patients using activities that encourage them to improve their attitudes towards their health status. This ultimately goes a long way towards the full recovery of the patients. Workplace empowerment has several options. The major strategies of workplace empowerment include structural empowerment and professional development. Structural development refers to improvement in the working conditions, compensation packages, and working time and/or schedule of the employees. Empowerment leads to a significant reduction of errors and increases the retention of employees (Piper, 2009).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Role of Teams in Professional Nursing Development
Teams play a critical role in the professional development of nurses. They emphasize the concept of shared governance. Shared governance enables nurses to have autonomy and accountability on their practice. This empowers nurses to participate in decision-making within an organization, especially decisions that affect nursing practice. Shared governance facilitates the professional development of nurses. Nurses participate in various committees that have shared governance. Some examples of the committees include falls committee and patient satisfaction committee. The committees make decisions that affect nursing practice and patient care. Committee members who actively participate in the committees have a sense of ownership over their practice. The above committees enable nurses to know areas where they have knowledge deficiency. This makes the nurses strive to improve their knowledge through education or other means. The committees also enable nurses to know their strengths. Nurses may pursue professional development in areas that align with their strengths. In so doing, teams help nurses in professional development (Poulton & West, 1999).Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay
Conclusion
Teams perform most roles in any contemporary organization. Therefore, formulation of initiatives that would increase the chances of teams to achieve their goals is critical to the success of any organization. In a healthcare setting, various teams collaborate to improve patient outcomes. Nurses, physicians, and specialists may collaborate to development therapies that would improve the outcome of a patient suffering from a certain illness. For teams to be successful in a healthcare setting, they must possess certain communication skills. Teams help in empowering healthcare professionals. Therefore, it is vital for all healthcare organization to ensure that they harness the power of various teams. Intra and Interdisciplinary Teams in Healthcare Essay