Inter-professional Communication and Collaboration in Healthcare Settings - Assignment Example

Inter-professional Communication and Collaboration in Healthcare Settings number Assignment Major Written Assignment Word Length Due date: 2556 Introduction The Australian government has created the Health Workforce Strategy 2011-2015 to promote healthcare education and practice that encourages prevention and primary care through inter-professional collaboration (Health Workforce Australia, 2011). It offers a framework for healthcare workforce reforms, where it defined “interprofessional learning, training, practice or collaboration” as a process where “two or more professionals practice and learn with, from and about one another to improve collaboration and the quality of care” (Health Workforce Australia, 2011, p.33). Interdisciplinary education and practice have been linked to successful care coordination and improved care outcomes, particularly for patients with chronic or complex conditions (Morgan, Pullon, & McKinlay, in press), although these positive healthcare outcomes depend on effective interdisciplinary communication and collaboration practices and other patient and healthcare system variables (Courtenay, Nancarrow, & Dawson, 2013; Verhovsek, Byington, & Deshkulkarni, 2009). The essay analyses a healthcare scenario from Palumbo’s (2013) video clip. The video shows an inter-professional team that tackled Mr. Potter’s case. Mr. Potter (78 years old) was to be discharged to his wife and the team determined that he needed cardiac education, medication education, energy expenditure education, and discharge counselling, among others. The team was composed of eight healthcare professionals from different disciplines. The essay discusses the importance of good interpersonal communication to different stakeholders in healthcare settings and analyses and resolves issues in inter-professional communication and collaboration skills. Importance of Good Interpersonal Communication Good interpersonal communication is essential to clients, families, and significant others because it can lead to effective and efficient attainment of their personal and group needs (McCornack, 2013). Clients use good interpersonal communication skills to express their thoughts and feelings regarding their healthcare conditions and to assert their autonomy in making healthcare decisions (Stajduhar, Thorne, McGuinness, & Kim-Sing, 2010). They need these skills to effectively inform their families and healthcare personnel of their inputs about their healthcare services and health conditions (Stajduhar et al., 2010). Families also need to use interpersonal communication skills to help their ill family members understand and follow healthcare education guidelines and practices (Riley, Stewart, & Grace, 2007). Significant others are particularly essential in ensuring continuity of care at home, especially when they are the ones taking care of their sick partners/spouses. Good interpersonal communication contributes to properly coping with stress and relational conflicts during treatment, which, in turn, can lead to lower morbidity and mortality (Harburg et al., 2008). These skills are also essential to improving relationship quality that can also affect patient life satisfaction and lower psychological distress (Goldzweig et al., 2009). Apart from the side of the patient of their families, healthcare professionals must be able to communicative effectively to improve healthcare utilisation and patient satisfaction (Schoenthaler et al., 2009). Healthcare professionals who use collaborative communication skills that respect clients’ cultural and personal beliefs and life goals are more effective in improving healthcare utilisation and patient satisfaction (Schoenthaler et al., 2009). They integrate their patients’ particular cultural and personal needs to their healthcare management plans (Schoenthaler et al., 2009). Moreover, patients who perceive their healthcare providers as effective communicators usually report better healthcare outcomes because they can efficiently use healthcare systems and adhere better with therapies and medication (Schoenthaler et al., 2009). Providers who provide continued care through empathetic and interactive communication skills and practices promote health-maintaining beliefs and behaviours among patients (e.g. adherence to medicine and therapies) (Reynolds & Scott, 1999; Riley et al., 2007; Stajduhar et al., 2010). Moreover, clear professional communication enhances health literacy, which consequently improves disease specific knowledge, disease control, hospitalisation rates, and mortality rates (Howard, Jacobson, & Kripalani, 2013; Moser et al., in press; van der Heide et al., in press). The consequences of poor professional interpersonal communication are low health literacy, higher hospitalisation rates, and higher morbidity and mortality rates (Howard et al., 2013; Moser et al., in press; van der Heide et al., in press). The literature underscores the role of good interpersonal communication in better relations among different stakeholders and improved healthcare processes and outcomes (Harburg et al., 2008; van der Heide et al., in press). Case Analysis Stakeholder Analysis Viewpoint of Client. The client’s viewpoint is not completely integrated into the decision-making considerations of the healthcare team, which can impact the latter’s healthcare satisfaction and health conditions. The client has already provided his input into his healthcare by complaining of temporomandibular joint disorders (TMJ) and his medication, expressing anxiety over recovery, and showing passion for gardening. On the one hand, the healthcare leader did consider the health literacy needs of the client by stressing the importance of discharge counselling and cardiac education (Palumbo, 2013). The other healthcare members also pointed out important healthcare issues for the client, such as TMJ and medication education (Palumbo, 2013). On the other hand, the majority of the healthcare team did not show engagement in collaborating with one another in designing a strongly patient-centred healthcare plan. Many of them showed signs of disinterest and lack of interactivity, such as when Landon laughed over the patient’s desire for gardening and when many did not pay attention to each other’s input (Palumbo, 2013). They also did not express empathy for the client’s worry over his recovery and did not consider responses towards the client’s emotional and social needs for post-discharge professional and social support (Palumbo, 2013). Problems with poor attention to patient’s social and health needs and goals are prevalent in the healthcare system because of poor patient-centric healthcare approaches and weak inter-professional collaboration (Courtenay et al., 2013; Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Verhovsek et al., 2009). The impacts of lack of consideration for the client’s medical, emotional, and social needs are possibly lower social well-being (Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Riley et al., 2007), medical errors, and negative healthcare outcomes (Brock et al., 2013; Scotten et al., 2015). Viewpoint of Professionals. The professionals did not exhibit teamwork attitudes and practices. They did not provide engaging verbal and nonverbal support for one another. For instance, when Landon mentioned that the patient has not yet received discharge counselling, not one of the team showed initiation to take care of this important responsibility (Palumbo, 2013). They also did not exhibit supportive nonverbal support because when one of them was speaking, many played with their nails or hair or attended to other work (Palumbo, 2013). Poor teamwork is widespread in the healthcare sector because of weak inter-professional education and skills, lack of role understanding, and status/hierarchical differences (Courtenay et al., 2013; Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Verhovsek et al., 2009). They may also lack respect for each other’s roles, or simply have strong disciplinary halos (Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Verhovsek et al., 2009). Lack of teamwork in multidisciplinary teams often results to poor engagement and collaboration, and insufficient maximisation of the team’s inter-professional strengths (e.g. skill and knowledge sharing) (Kent & Keating, in press). Viewpoint of Professional Organisation. The professional organisation will not benefit from poor teamwork practices and related poor quality of healthcare services. Lack of support for one another and inability to provide engaging health literacy can result to ineffective and efficient healthcare education and healthcare service utilisation (Brown & Nelson, 2014). Instead of developing self-efficacy, Mr. Potter might even become more resistant to his medication and therapy, if he does not feel that his providers genuinely care for his long-term recovery and after-care life satisfaction (Brown & Nelson, 2014). The result will be higher costs for the professional organisation because of repetitive hospitalisation and check-ups due to poor health literacy behaviours (Brock et al., 2013; Scotten et al., 2015). In addition, the nursing student does not seem to benefit from observing intra-professional practice because of lack of mentoring. None of the staff provided any useful input for the student and nobody gave an important engaging task for the latter (Lait et al., 2011). Due to these problems, the professional organisation will not attain the benefits of intra-professional collaboration, specifically better coordinated healthcare services, integrated and efficient health care systems, and superior patient outcomes (Kent & Keating, in press; Scotten et al., 2015). Inter-Professional Team Communication and Collaboration Skills The team showed poor inter-professional team communication skills because they did not function as a team. They have different roles, but they do not access and respond to their roles and each other’s roles in helpful ways. For example, Dr. Mayo did not show commitment to their team goals for patient-centred care when she mentioned that she hardly had time for their meeting (Palumbo, 2013). She does not value the role of inter-professional collaboration to patient-centred care. Julie, in addition, complained about the patient’s problems in following precautions, but she did not think about asking help from other team members regarding patient education. Furthermore, their non-verbal expressions indicate lack of commitment and engagement in their team. They were not listening actively to one another, and so they were also not able to respond properly, according to their disciplinary specialties. They represent a team, but they hardly function as one. Their professional identities are separated from one another, which hampered their ability to see one another as essential and interdependent members of a team (Hood et al., 2014). Besides poor inter-professional team communication skills, the team suffers from poor collaboration skills. Only the leader seems to be aware of each other’s roles and competencies. The others barely recognise the specialties in their team. First, they do not coordinate or refer services to one another. Joy believes that pain management is a concern for the patient, but she does not refer the client to her team or other professional help. Landon also does not seem to care about the person who should be in charge of discharge counselling. Discharge counselling should be a product of inter-professional collaborative practice because it must consider discharge assessment, daily updates, discharge day assessment, and post-discharge services and health education (Scotten et al., 2015). The team has not shown any strong interest in providing patient-centred discharge counselling that could include essential health literacy components that are disease-specific to their patient (Hood et al., 2014). Second, the team did not maximise their inter-professional knowledge and skills because they did not even pay attention to each other’s inputs. They look bored and ready to leave, instead of actively responding and discussing patient issues and planning for patient-centred healthcare services. The team did not collaborate in analysing and responding to their patient’s critical healthcare needs and conditions. Barriers to Communication Viewpoint of Client. The barriers to communication from the viewpoint of the client are poor perceptions of providers, poor communication skills and pretending to understand. Patients experience communication barriers when they do not feel empathy from their providers, providers are not asking for their participation or input in healthcare decision-making, and they are not offering enough information to reduce patient anxiety over medication/therapy and health conditions (Brandes et al., 2015). The team clearly did not provide health education because the patient feels anxious for his recuperation. They also failed to show empathy because one of them even laughed at his gardening goals, while almost all did not feel connected to the patient’s emotional and social needs. Furthermore, many patients cannot express their sentiments properly or in a timely manner because of poor language and communication skills and pretending to hear/understand. Older people do not want to feel that they are getting senile, so they could pretend that they hear/understand their providers too (Park & Song, 2005). They might also have poor communication skills, which is why the team is experiencing problems with the patient following medication and precautions. Viewpoint of Professionals. As for the healthcare professionals, they also experience barriers to communication with one another and their patients. Some of the barriers to communication with their patients are lack of empathy, poor attitudes towards older patients, poor communication skills, and work overload that affects workplace attitudes and behaviours too (Park & Song, 2005). These problems are present in the case because the team did not adequately show empathy towards the patients’ specific health and social anxieties. Professionals also have communication barriers to one another. These barriers may be due to role stress, lack of inter-professional role understanding, autonomy problems, and poor communication skills (Verhovsek et al., 2009). The team exhibited the same barriers, especially poor inter-professional role understanding and communication skills, because they did not respond to each other’s professional inputs and did not offer interdisciplinary approaches to managing the client’s different healthcare needs. Viewpoint of Professional Organisation. The professional organisation can also cause communication barriers. Some of these barriers are lack of inter-professional communication and collaboration education and framework (Brown & Nelson, 2014; Scotten et al., 2015). The organisation may have not provided a comprehensive framework that links inter-professional communication and collaboration education and practice. Healthcare professionals may not even be duly trained in leading and participating in multidisciplinary teams, so they do not have the proper interpersonal skills and inter-professional skills needed to communicate with one another and to encourage teamwork attitudes and practices (Brock et al., 2013). In addition, the organisation may have not prepared a framework for inter-professional collaboration. The framework can include inter-professional collaboration principles, rules, guidelines, and performance management system that will institutionalise inter-professional collaboration across organisational disciplines and management levels (Scotten et al., 2015). Recommendations The healthcare organisation and team can do better by enhancing teamwork attitudes and practices. First, the organisation should ensure that it has a clear inter-professional communication and collaboration framework. It can even base its principles and guidelines from the Health Workforce Strategy 2011-2015 because the latter offers useful monitoring and evaluative indicators and action plans. The framework must include inter-professional collaboration principles, rules, guidelines, and a performance management system. These policies and performance management system can help institutionalise inter-professional collaboration across organisational disciplines and management levels (Scotten et al., 2015). The framework must also compose of related training/education in communication and collaboration in multidisciplinary settings, as well as provide opportunities for inter-professional mentoring for medical students (Brock et al., 2013; Hood et al., 2014). Second, the team must enhance teamwork attitudes and behaviours through active listening and inter-professional collaboration. They should have clear knowledge of their roles and expertise, so that they can interact more meaningfully with one another when talking about patient issues and healthcare system problems in general (Kent & Keating, in press). Furthermore, they must learn how to function as a team through providing utmost attention and responsiveness to one another during team meetings and offering interdisciplinary inputs when designing health education and healthcare services (Brown, & Nelson, 2014). In addition, these providers must also actively listen to their patients’ particular personal needs and aspirations, because these factors can impact how patients perceive and practice healthcare maintenance behaviours (Courtenay et al., 2013). Patients who see their providers as empathetic and competent are more likely to have better healthcare utilisation and recovery rates (Brandes et al., 2015; Park & Song, 2005). In other words, the team must interact with one another as a team, where they also see their patients as active team members who have self-efficacy and autonomy needs (Brandes et al., 2015; Park & Song, 2005). Inter-professional success greatly relies on the team members’ ability to communicate and collaborate with each other, as they pursue positive long-term healthcare outcomes for their patients and improved healthcare systems and processes for their organisations (Cramm & Nieboer, 2011; Morgan et al., in press; Verhovsek et al., 2009). References Brandes, K., Linn, A.J., Smit, E.G., & van Weert, J. (2015). Patients’ reports of barriers to expressing concerns during cancer consultations. Patient Education and Counseling, 98(3), 317-322. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2014.11.021 Brock, D., Abu-Rish, E., Chiu, C.R., Hammer, D., Wilson, S., Vorvick, L., Blondon, K., Schaad, D., Liner, D., & Zierler, B. (2013). 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