How Communication within an Inter-professional Team Can Affect Collaborative Working Strategies
Introduction
Schwartz, Lowe & Sinclair (2010) have stated that effective communication is very important for a health care professional and service user to interaction with each other successful and also between the health care professionals. according to Weiss &Tappen (2014), P98 Communication is considered to be a core competency in promoting inter-professional collaborative practice.
This assignment will identify and discuss the differences within the inter-professional and collaborative working strategies, which can help health care professionals overcome any boundaries within different professions. The assignment will also looked at the knowledge and skills which are vital in order to show autonomy in practice this help nurses to improved their level of interaction with different professionals within the an inter-professional team.
Anderson(2013), have stated that communication is vital in nursing profession this is due to the nursing practice on a daily basis is build on collaborating or working with different professionals. (Garwood, Lingard et al, 2005) reported that when medical errors take place, the reasons for the error are often traced back to breakdowns in communication between members of the healthcare team. It has been stated by Goodman and clemow(2010) nursing profession is not a solitary profession.
Nurses should therefore be able communicate effectively with different professionals in order to work as a part of the team and interact successfully. If nurses can maintain this positive attitude of working in inter-professional collaborative working strategies and communicate effective, this will not only benefit the patient centre care but it will also reduce the conflict within different professions.
Anderson (1990) stated that active listening is a process that requires energy and concentration to avoid one missing major points which would in turn compromise delivering quality care to the service users. This has been evidenced in both Victoria Climbie baby P cases and Mid Staffordshire(Francis report 2013) where there was a lack of communication and collaboration among the inter-professional group which led to fatal incidents in both cases. According to (Hall and Weaver, 2001) in order to improved the quality of the service user there has to be a good communication, collaboration and congruence among the health care provides. To be an effective collaborative worker.
The Nursing & Midwifery Council (NMC, 2008) have state in the code of conduct that nurses must able to work effectively as a part of a team and this can only be achieved through if nurses are willing to sharing their knowledge, skills and experience with their colleagues. making consultations, taking advice when appropriate, and making referrals to other practitioners. cooperate with others in the team; maintain your professional knowledge and competence; be trustworthy and to act to identify and minimise risk to service users This strategy naturally entails communication with other professionals. Communication in this case can be verbal or non-verbal. when communicating with different professional it is vital that the language which is used during the communication is understood by all those whom are involved in the care of the service user.
(Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014). What that means is that during inter-professional communication the language which is use should be formal and consistent. This is another way which help to improve inter-professional communication and enhance collaborative practice. Schwartz et al.(2010) have identify that one related problem which prevent effective development of inter-professional communication, which is development of a language that is different for every profession. Having a language which is only unique to one profession or discipline can seriously cause communication barrier within personnel from different professions or discipline(Schwartz et al. 2010).
Miscommunication could be due that health care professionals are unable to understand the information which been given , now this could be due to lack of shared understanding of commonly used acronyms , terms and concepts.( Schwartz et al. 2010). This can have great impact of the quality of collaboration within professionals this could be due that they are unable to understand each other on easy way. In order to deal with this problem it is important to avoided use of medical jargon, especially when inter-professional team involved non-healthcare personnel.
This issue of using medical jargon when communicating with non-healthcare personnel has been a hot topic during the lecture of Cares of Hertfordshire, they have stated that they wish that healthcare professional will communicate with them with the language that they understood not so many medical jargon that they do not understand and has not been explained to them in way that they could understand it. which is why it vital to recognize our own use of jargon and asked colleagues clarified unclear terminology and use jargon free language whenever is possible. Campbell(2006) Have reported that poor communication has frequently been cited as one of the biggest criticisms in health care settings.
Another importance of collaboration is that it ensure the transfer of accurate information necessary to deliver appropriate care . Nurses have also been advice to adopt a structured format of verbal and non-verbal communication skill which is acceptable to all members of the inter-professional team. One structured which is common within the hospital known as SBAR,(Situation, Background, Assessment and Recommendation) this method make inter-professional communication more effective and easy to understand and reduced any confusion . Narayan(2013, p504).
According to Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, (2014, p65) have stated that communication can happened even without words been said, which is it is important to recognise that non-verbal communication is quail important as verbal communication. Non-verbal communication is through body language and facial expression (Kourkouta & Papathanasiou, 2014 ) .
This is why it is vital that nurses learn within early stage of their practice learn how read and understand other professionals non-verbal communication, which usually should use with spoken words, in order to fully understand the information communicate and eventually improve collaborative practice.
It is important to have a clear and structured form of communication in order to prevent stereotyping and judgmental attitudes and unprofessional behaviours towards other members of staff. with this knowledge in hand it is important to make sure ones future professional judgement or decision are based on accurate information sharing, making sure that non-judgemental avoided misunderstanding and misconception when making decision.
This is one of the reason why The NMC (2008, p5) states that nurses should be able to work cooperatively within teams and respect the skills, expertise and contribution of the others. another strategy of collaborative working is that always make sure that patients or service users are involved at any decision making regarding their acre. According to Beauchamp & Childress (2001) the autonomy of services users should be respected and their decision-making capacity of independent person which enabling them as an individual’s to make reasoned informed choices about their treatment.
It is clear that nursing profession is like any other profession which requires a certain of independence from other professions even if the practice of nursing required ones to work collaborating with other professions. Dave (2009) have state that the role and responsibilities needs to be defined, challenged and task to be shared within health care profession this will enable both nurses and different other health care professions whom are also involved in service user care. Independent practice points to the concept of autonomy. Dewar (2010) states to be able to practice professional autonomy means that one is already in the advance practice of one’s profession. Nurses should be able make clinical decision directly relating to their patients care in order to practice autonomy.
It is important to know yourself and your capabilities, to understand what makes us do the things we do and why we do them. also to be self-aware. Self-awareness is a vital aspect of professional development. People are born into different backgrounds and are different in their ways, motivations, thoughts and beliefs; however as a professional, it is important to recognise how these affect others to be able to establish and maintain therapeutic relationships with patients.
(Swapna , 2007) Knowing our own thoughts and feelings, strengths and weaknesses gives us the ability to guide us in our decision making, and also helps us to become more self-confident in our approaches
The main priority of service improvement is to improve access for patients by engaging clinical teams to reduce waits and delays at all stages across a patient pathway. Service Improvement is achieved by looking for opportunities to redesign as well as ensuring that effective waiting list management practice is implemented.
Conclusion
Inter-professional communication gravely affects collaborative working strategies which use within an inter-professional team. It is core effect which is inefficient collaborative practice which enable to make sure high quality of care is deliver to the patients at all time. poor inter-professional communication can hinder collaboration within professionals and which in turned can have a greater impact on the quality of care which delivered to the patient. It is important to have good inter-professional communication and collaborative working practice in place to prevent any miscommunication happening within the health care. SBAR is one good example of using a formal structured language. It is also very important as a health care profession to remind ourselves to avoided using medical jargon .
References
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