Improvements in collaborative healthcare have been cited as a crucial strategy for global healthcare reform. This approach involves various healthcare professionals working together to provide comprehensive, patient-centered care. Collaborative healthcare recognizes that no single professional can meet the multi-faceted needs of patients. This leads to effective healthcare delivery, often requiring multidisciplinary teams.
As with most professionals, nurses are an indispensable part of collaborative healthcare. A diverse skill set and unwavering commitment to patient-centered practices emphasize their contributions to patient care in this collaborative model. Below, we discuss nurses’ roles in collaborative patient care, highlighting how they work alongside other healthcare professionals to provide high-quality care.
The Importance Of Teamwork In Healthcare
Healthcare is a multidisciplinary profession in which doctors, nurses and health professionals from various specialties must work together, communicate often, and share resources. This requires that healthcare professionals collaborate and communicate effectively to ensure healthcare safety, quality, and effectiveness.
Over time, teamwork has become a significant health intervention for several reasons. The first and most important reason is the increasingly complex and specialized nature of clinical care due to an aging population and a high prevalence of chronic diseases. This has forced medical professionals to learn new methods and quickly adopt a multidisciplinary approach to their practice.
The synergy of teamwork allows for a better understanding of patient needs, resulting in more timely interventions. Collaboration enables healthcare professionals to learn from each other and quickly identify areas for improvement, ensuring patients receive the best possible care.
Various studies have also found that working together in teams reduces the number of medical errors and increases patient safety. Everyone sharing information and working together can identify potential issues and minimize mistakes regarding patients’ diagnoses and treatment plans.
Aside from patients, medical professionals also benefit significantly from working in teams. Being responsible for patients’ health can be physically, emotionally, and mentally stressful, resulting in burnout. However, with entire teams collaborating and coordinating patients’ well-being, healthcare workers are no longer constantly subjected to highly stressful and often traumatic situations.
As effective teamwork relies on clear communication, patients and their families often experience increased comfort, express excellent receptiveness to treatment and report higher satisfaction with the care received. Several studies have also shown that healthcare workers within teams are more satisfied with their current position and occupations.
Teamwork is a core value of healthcare, and adopting a collaborative mindset helps to create effective team-based healthcare. This approach can change the interactions with patients and other medical professionals, ultimately transforming the healthcare environment.
The Multidisciplinary Approach To
The evaluation and planning of treatment options are collaborative processes involving medical and allied healthcare professionals and the patient and their family. A multidisciplinary approach aims to provide the most comprehensive care possible for each patient at the right place and time.
The team is centered primarily on the needs of patients and their families. The team’s flexibility becomes paramount as patients’ conditions, needs, and circumstances change over time. Some of the typical critical players in a multidisciplinary team include:
Physicians
Medical doctors generally assume the role of team leaders in multidisciplinary healthcare teams. Their responsibilities include diagnosing and treating various medical conditions, issuing prescription medications, and conducting various medical procedures central to patient care.
Nurses
The integral role of registered and advanced practice nurses in a multidisciplinary team extends beyond primary care. These professionals actively participate in the development and administration of various treatment interventions. Alongside clinical care, nurses also wield considerable influence through patient education and advocacy for those under their supervision.
Pharmacists
Pharmacists are responsible for dispensing medications to patients. However, pharmacists must uphold drug safety standards within this role, ensuring each medication is administered with the utmost care and precision. They also offer comprehensive insights into medication use, potential interactions, and the optimization of therapeutic outcomes.
Allied Health Professionals
This group has a broad spectrum of specialists, including physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and dietitians, each with their own distinct focus. These dedicated experts emphasize thebenefits of physical therapy and concentrate their efforts on multi-faceted aspects of healthcare.
Social Workers
These highly skilled professionals help patients, and their families navigate healthcare’s intricate social and emotional dimensions. Social workers help connect patients to an extensive network of community resources, ensuring they have access to needed support. They are also skilled at addressing several psychosocial concerns associated with health issues.
Mental Health Workers
Psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors specialize in conducting mental health assessments and offering diverse therapeutic interventions to address patients’ psychological challenges. Their collective efforts are directed toward promoting mental health, emotional resilience, and overall wellness among those who seek care.
A multidisciplinary team could also include medical lab technologists, dentists, administrative staff, chaplains, case managers and paramedics. Each plays a crucial role in ensuring patients receive comprehensive and well-coordinated care.
Nurses’ Role In Collaborative Healthcare
Nurses are the only clinical professionals specially trained to understand the roles of other healthcare providers, providing a solid foundation for successful collaboration. As part of their training, nurses develop competency in adaptability, empathy, and communication, making them excellent leaders and care team members. Nurses utilize this training in collaborating with other healthcare professionals within a multidisciplinary team in the following ways:
Interprofessional Rounds
Interprofessional rounds (IPRs) are a patient-centered care strategy where healthcare providers, such as nurses, as well as the patient and caregivers or family, dedicate time to establish daily goals and coordinate complex healthcare needs. These rounds improve communication between nurses and providers, identify education and workflow gaps, and increase staff satisfaction across a team.
As the name suggests, this strategy involves all care delivery team members, from physicians to nurses, social workers, pharmacists, nurse facilitators, and, of course, patients. IPRs are a prevalent aspect of healthcare, capable of emphasizing patient-centered care and improving communication among healthcare team members, patients and their families or caregivers.
Several studies have highlighted the significant impact of IPRs on team satisfaction and patient experience. They also emphasize the importance of implementing these rounds across diverse scenarios. IPRs provide a structured platform for nurses to collaborate and discuss patient cases, develop comprehensive care plans, reduce medical errors, and optimize healthcare resources.
Effective Communication
Effective communication is the foundation of successful collaboration in healthcare, and a nurse’s training makes them pivotal in improving communication within a team. Nurses engage in extensive dialogues with physicians, therapists, pharmacists, and diverse team members, facilitating the seamless exchange of vital patient information.
It’s typical for nurses to report on any noteworthy changes in a patient’s condition and engage in comprehensive discussions regarding treatment strategies and therapies. The goal of effective communication is to ensure every healthcare team member is in complete alignment while also enhancing the coordination and quality of care that the patient receives.
Care Coordination
This process involves the deliberate organization of patient care activities and information sharing among all participants concerned with a patient’s care to achieve safer and more effective care. Care coordination ensures the patient’s needs and preferences are known and communicated to the right people. With this information, healthcare teams can provide safe, tailored, and effective care to the patient.
Nurses and other medical professionals achieve coordinated care in different ways. First, healthcare delivery is improved through broad care coordination approaches, incorporating teamwork, care and medication management, health information technology, and patient-centered medical centers. Multidisciplinary teams can also utilize specific care coordination activities, depending on the patient’s condition and the team’s competency.
According to the Institute of Medicine, care coordination is a crucial strategy to improve the American healthcare system’s effectiveness, safety, and efficiency. A well-designed, targeted process not only enhances the outcomes of patients but care providers too.
Medication Management
Medical management is a subset of care coordination. This strategy requires healthcare professionals to work with patients and caregivers in creating a complete and accurate medication list. Medication management has proven effective in minimizing medication-related harm, promoting adherence, and enhancing medication safety.
Medication management is also crucial in supporting collaborative healthcare by promoting effective communication, safety, and coordination among healthcare professionals. Nurses who implement this strategy are required to exchange essential information regarding patients’ medication with other healthcare professionals. They also consult with other health workers, particularly pharmacists, to make informed decisions regarding drug selection, dosage, and possible side effects.
Other aspects of medication management, including medication safety, medication reconciliation and treatment adjustment, also emphasize collaboration between healthcare professionals. This collaborative approach ultimately enhances patient outcomes and ensures the safe and effective use of medications.
Patient Education
The scope of nursing practice incorporates diverse roles within healthcare, one being patient education and support. Aside from primary care, nurses are responsible for ensuring patients understand their health, illnesses, medications, and treatment plans. This is particularly helpful in promoting care continuity among patients and their families.
In every aspect of healthcare, nurses serve as the primary point of contact, providing education, promoting healthy practices, sharing their knowledge, and helping patients heal. However, the complex and specialized nature of clinical care means nurses often need to enlist the help of other healthcare professionals for different reasons.
Typically, nurses collaborate with other professionals to share and gather information about the patient’s current condition and treatment plan, ensuring they have accurate and current details to share with patients. This is most prevalent when patients deal with issues requiring specialized professionals. For instance, nurses could work with dietitians to provide nutritional guidance and dietary instructions to patients with specific health conditions affected by diet.
Rehabilitation Teams
Rehabilitation teams include a diverse range of care providers across various specializations tasked with providing interventions that help optimize functioning and reduce disability in individuals with health conditions. These teams work to improve an individual’s ability to interact with their environment optimally.
A rehabilitation team features seven core professions, including rehabilitation nursing. These specialized professionals provide comprehensive care, support and education to patients and their families. They work to assist patients in regaining their maximum level of function and independence and transitioning back into their homes and communities.
With at least six other professionals in this group, the effectiveness of rehabilitation teams is grounded in collaboration. Rehabilitation nurses typically collaborate with physiotherapists, occupational therapists, dieticians, and psychologists, depending on the patient’s needs and requirements. Other medical specializations within rehabilitation teams include audiology, speech and language therapy, prosthetics, and orthotics.
Emergency Response
Every country and medical institution implements emergency response procedures to mitigate the impact of unexpected or dangerous occurrences on people. ER teams plan and direct disaster response and crisis management activities, provide disaster preparedness training and prepare emergency plans and procedures for natural, wartime and technological disasters.
Emergency response procedures typically feature five phases: prevention, mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery. Team members are selected based on these phases. Nurses are crucial in many of these phases, carrying out emergency response plans before, during and after disasters.
Nurses collaborate with emergency personnel, community organizations, healthcare providers and other healthcare team members to provide education and health promotion interventions. Nurses’ flexibility, versatility, quick-thinking and collaboration skills make them crucial in emergencies.
Interprofessional Trainin
The foundation of effective collaboration is laid in the classroom, particularly in nursing schools, emphasizing the importance of interprofessional education. These schools equip nurses with the skills and knowledge necessary to function seamlessly within healthcare teams.
Structured coursework and practical training through reputable institutions, such as Cleveland State University’s
MSN-NE, train nurses to lead beyond the bedside and become effective educators. Through this program, nurses develop skills in teaching and supervising nursing students and professionals in clinical settings. With 100% online coursework combined with experiential learning hours completed locally, working nurses can complete this program in as little as two years. Students of this MSN in Nursing Education study topics such as evidence-based practice, nursing education leadership, educational evaluation models and curriculum development in nursing.
Aside from helping nurses understand their roles and responsibilities, interprofessional training also fosters a comprehensive understanding of other healthcare professionals’ diverse roles and contributions. This creates a well-rounded and collaborative healthcare workforce.
Advocacy
Nurses are strong patient advocates, ensuring patient’s rights are upheld and their preferences respected. Nurses escalate patient concerns to other healthcare professionals or administrators when necessary. Nurse advocates also use their position of trust to protect patients’ rights, health, and safety.
Nurses work closely with healthcare providers, medical administrators, policymakers, and medical organizations to ensure the highest level of patient care for individuals and families alike.
Overcoming Challenges In Interprofessional Collaboration
While interprofessional collaboration is essential for delivering high-quality care, it has challenges. Collaborative healthcare poses several challenges, from communication barriers to hierarchical structures, differing priorities, resistance to change, autonomy and cultural differences.
The importance of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is extensive and calls for implementing strategies that address these obstacles. The most common way to overcome these challenges is by clarifying every professional’s role and scope of practice. This helps avoid confusion or overlap, ensuring each professional works within legal and ethical boundaries.
Communication is crucial for sharing information, making decisions, and building trust among team members. However, unlike nurses, not all medical providers train to communicate effectively. In addition, communication can become difficult when there are differences in language, culture, or expectations.
Successful interprofessional collaboration requires communication that utilizes effective channels and emphasizes active listening and honest feedback. Other strategies include developing shared goals, providing support and learning from others.
Conclusion
The healthcare system is highly interdependent and features many aspects. This means delivering safe and effective healthcare services to patients takes teamwork, collaboration, and constant effort.
Ultimately, the core of healthcare is to promote and maintain the overall well-being and health of individuals and communities. To achieve this objective, healthcare providers must recognize the importance of interprofessional collaboration, look beyond individual skills and deliver exceptional, patient-centered care.
