The Dimensions in Interprofessional Practice - Essay Example

? The Dimensions of Inter-professional Practice [Pick the Contents Introduction 3 2.Feelings 3 3.Evaluation 4 4.Analysis 5 5. Conclusion 7 6.Action Plan 7 References 9 1. Introduction The event involves treatment of Mrs. Weber who is a 70 years old patient with multiple health disorders. She was admitted in the hospital due to her shin injury which required immediate treatment. The patient was provided with social health care services. In case of elderly patients, it is important to have a complete patient history before providing or initiating any intervention due to medical complications (Miers and Pollard, 2009). Therefore, we requested the services of her health care service provider so that we could have necessary details. I was assigned with the task of gathering her medical history while Mrs. Weber was being provided with preliminary treatment which included necessary dressing to cover and heal her wound. Considering the history of Mrs. Weber, I called social worker handling Mrs. Weber’s case and also two specialists from falls clinic so that necessary input can be received regarding patient’s current life style, Osteoarthritis problem and fear for walking. For drafting a reflection of this event, Gibbs’ framework for reflection is being used (Oxford Brookes University, 2012). Although there are various methods available for reflective writing but Gibb’s framework provides a highly synchronized and systematic approach to elaborate, discuss and evaluate the event in the light of practical experiences and theoretical approaches. 2. Feelings Being a nurse, it became my responsibility to ensure that all the members of this inter-professional team that included a social worker who was Mrs. Weber’s caretaker, two specialists from falls clinic and my attending, remain in complete contact. I have gone through literature related to fundamental practice of inter-professional teams and I am well-aware of the drawbacks of this practice (Leathard, 1994; Baker,and Heitkemper; 2006; Barr, 2002). Therefore, in order to mitigate these risks, I had to assume the role of connecting agent between other team members. Mrs. Weber was a patient of osteoarthritis and hypotension that became a fundamental cause of her repetitive falls resulting in shin injury and development of fear for mobilization (Figueroa et al., 2010; Gregory et al. 2010). This idea was a reflection of directives provided by NSF Standards 2001 by DoH. According to these standards, necessary interventions should be introduced to ensure that elderly patients are enabled of living their life in a healthy manner. Furthermore, it was important that impacts of illness and disability must be reduced and all the other barriers to healthy life must be mitigated. According to Mrs. Weber’s caretaker, she didn’t use any external mobilization support. She was taking medication from local community doctor as well as some unregistered homeopathic doctor. This intake of medicine from multiple sources made me suspicious about her medicine intake and her present health condition. 3. Evaluation Careful analysis of patient’s case revealed that Mrs. Weber had a hypotension problem that was accelerated by polypharmacy as she was taking medicines from NHS representatives and a local homeopathic doctor simultaneously (Hovard and Avery, 2004). Excessive intake of diuretic resulted in high blood pressure leading to repetitive falls (Lewiecki and Watts, 2009). Furthermore, due to these falls, she had developed a fear of mobilization. An interesting input was given by the psychiatrist of falls clinic. According to him, diuretics increase the extent of urination. Since Mrs. Weber finds it difficult to move independently and does not use any sanitary pads, she urinates in her bed or other places resulting in low self-esteem. The social worker responsible for Mrs. Weber’s care added that Mrs. Weber prefers to remain isolated from the family, community and external contact. Due to these multiple factors, Mrs. Weber has become a patient of depression and is showing early symptoms of dementia. Usually the patients of end-stage dementia tend to show no or very little responsiveness to the medicines and care provided to them. Due to this, it becomes difficult for the social service providers to remain motivated and provide further service to the patient. Another feedback was shared by the orthosurgeon regarding Mrs. Weber’s Osteoarthritis. According to him, Mrs. Weber’s hypotension is aggravated by lack of mobilization. I did share my concerns regarding polypharmacy with my attending and she agreed to it after having a detailed look at Mrs. Weber’s chart. I also observed that since Mrs. Weber’s history was not known in the preliminary phase of her treatment, therefore continuous revelations from various sources lead the team members to alter their interventions accordingly which time was consuming. 4. Analysis After evaluation, it was agreed upon that Mrs. Weber has an unsuitable lifestyle. Therefore, various inputs were given by the professionals that were intended to alleviate the standard of living for Mrs. Weber. My attending changed few medicines in order to heal her shin injury and control hypotension and suggested Mrs. Weber’s caretaker to stop the intake of homeopathic medicines. She also shared her concerns with the orthosurgeon regarding Mrs. Weber’s high blood pressure and requested interventions that would control the overall impact of diuretics. Orthosurgeon suggested that hypotension can be healed with the help of simple exercises like toe raising while staying on the bed, leg-crossing and contraction, slow walk in her apartment or nearby park along with altering her life style and also her living environment (Figueroa et al., 2010; NICE, 2004). I shared with his concerns with patient’s caretaker and family later. It was suggested that she needs to be provided with rails in her apartment for mobilization support (Grimmer et al., 2004; Oliver and Masud, 2004). Furthermore, she was suggested visiting hospital for the treatment of her shin injury in her discharge plan (DoH, 2003). Another feedback was given by the psychiatrist regarding patient’s mental health. He concluded that Mrs. Weber is a dementia patient with early symptoms. She has severe condition of low-self esteem that has provoked her to shun all kind of humanly interactions and help provided to her. He instructed me to contact her caretaker and family and illustrate them how to handle such patient. Under his instructions, I suggested her family that they should provide her with ample monthly supplies so that she does not have to ask for help. I further suggested that Mrs. Weber’s family must stay in close contact with the caretaker for all updates. Along with food and medication, she has to be provided with sanitary pads so that any unpleasant incident can be avoided. Furthermore, it was suggested that in order to help her with her social isolation, fear for independent mobilization and low-self esteem, she should visit falls clinic twice a week. Furthermore, services of occupational therapists were recommended for alleviating Mrs. Weber’s quality of life as related Interventions by OTs were expected to help her in performing her daily activities with independence (Persson et al., 2004). I explained to Mrs. Weber and her family that OTs work with patients that have disabling health condition caused by mental, physical, and emotional distress. The basic rationale behind this intervention was to ensure that Mrs. Weber’s motor and reasoning skills are improved and her loss of functioning is duly compensated. 5. Conclusion Mrs. Weber was an elderly patient suffering from continuous falls caused by the discrepancies in her lifestyle. It was found that Mrs. Weber’s health condition was worsened by lack of synchronization between her caretaker and health service providers resulting in polycpharmacy. Furthermore, she was suffering from emotional distress caused by low-self esteem that made her abandon her family. Multiple inputs given by the inter-professional team lead to a holistic view ensuring that Mrs. Weber is receiving medicines that she actually needed and necessary attempts were made to increase quality of her life. Inputs given by attending, orthosurgeon and psychiatrist in the light of views given by her caretaker aimed at improving Mrs. Weber’s living conditions and her need for social contact. In this whole experience, I played a role of liaison within this team and the healthcare service providers and Mrs. Weber’s family. I gathered necessary information that helped these professionals to give necessary feedbacks. I further ensured that all the professionals in the team are aware of the interventions introduced by other members so that Mrs. Weber’s treatment provides effective results due to holistic effort. 6. Action Plan This experience enabled me to understand the importance of inter-professional functioning. In this experience, I found it hard to understand the psychological causes behind Mrs. Weber’s illness. Learning about patient’s emotional distress helps the nurses to change their treatment towards the patient accordingly and address the issues accordingly. I was treating Mrs. Weber as a patient with mere shin injury whereas introduction of inputs from different professionals lead to an understanding that her issues were arising out of a faulty lifestyle. If such kind of event occurs again, I would take necessary information from the relevant source in the preliminary phase so that the overall treatment can be expedited. Different findings from team members and their communication resulted in change of interventions suggested earlier that caused problem for the team members as well as Mrs. Weber. Collecting such information in the first place will improve the quality of healing process. References Baker, MW and Heitkemper, MM 2006. The role of nurses on inter-professional teams to combat elder mistreatment. Nursing Outlook, Vol. 53, No. 5: 253–259 Barr, H 2002. Interprofessional education today, yesterday and tomorrow. Higher Education Academy Centre for Health Sciences and Practice, Occasional Paper 1. 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Hovard, R and Avery, T 2004. Inappropriate prescribing in older people. Age and Ageing ,Vol. 33: 530–532. Leathard, A 1994. Inter-professional developments in Britain: an overview. In A. Leathard, (Eds.), Going inter-professional: Working together for health and welfare, pp. 3-37. London: Routledge. Lewiecki, E.M.and Watts, N.B. 2009. New Guidelines for the Prevention and Treatment of Osteoporosis. Southern Medical Journal, 102(2): 175-179. Miers, M and Pollard, K 2009. The role of nurses in interprofessional health and social care teams. Nursing Management 15(9): 30-35. National Institute of Health and Care Excellnce. 2004. NICE ClinicalGuidlins-Falls: The assessment and prevention of falls in older people. Viewed 23 December 2012 < http://publications.nice.org.uk/falls-cg21>. Oliver, D. and Masud, T. 2004. Preventing falls and injuries in care homes. Age and Ageing, 33: 532–535. Oxford Brookes University 2012. About Gibbs Reflective Cycle. Viewed 23 December 2012 < http://www.brookes.ac.uk/services/upgrade/a-z/reflective_gibbs.html> Persson et al., 2004. Evaluation of changes in occupational performance among patients in a pain management program. Journal of Rehabilitation Medicine, 36(2), 85-91. Read More