INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN NURSING

INTERPROFESSIONAL PRACTICE IN NURSING

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Chamberlain College of Nursing

NR451 RN Capstone Course

Term and Year

 
  Interprofessional nursing set up is that which approaches patient care from a team-based

perspective whereby physicians, pharmacists, dietitians, social workers, community health

workers, psychologists, nutritionists, medical assistants, nurses, therapists, and doctors work

together (Baik et al. 2018). In such a setup, patients are treated with a professional doctor who

has the best experience in a given medical field. Also, the patient receives professional nursing

care during treatment. In this current set up, there must be a teamwork effort with proper

coordination to ensure that patients are well cared for. Top management and senior doctors pass

supreme information down to the departmental staff: nurse managers, dentists, pharmacists, and

other heads of the department, which is then passed to the rest of the team. Communication is the

only team function that must be improved by integrating technology to quicken information flow

in the hospital. Nurses play an important role in creating a successful coordinative

interprofessional practice in the hospital, as discussed in the essay below.

Compassion

Nurses play an important role in contributing to the compassion of an interprofessional

team. Nurses are responsible for taking care of patients by following the doctor's or nurse

manager's prescriptions and orders. In addition to that, nurses are also responsible for handling

other medical procedures they can manage in the absence of a doctor (Baik et al. 2018). When it

comes to patient care, nurses are also responsible for creating a priority for treatment. Nurses

ascertain the level of the criticalness of a patient on behalf of the doctors. Nurses must be

courteous, kind, and help out other nursing professionals with their to-do lists. By doing so,

nurses help other staff and create a compassionate environment for all other staff who feel

helped, respected, appreciated, and motivated to work in such an environment. 

 Through a compassionate environment at work, workers intermingle freely. This positive

interaction at work creates a comfortable working environment despite the pressure at work. In

case there is a loss of a patient, professionals can share and console each other like a form of

stress management. The act of compassion creates a harmonious work environment with a proper

communication basis. Due to this well-coordinated interprofessional teamwork, patients are

quickly attended. Patients receive proper treatment, thus improving health care quality. Lastly,

compassion is transferrable to patient care. Healthcare professionals are comfortable at work;

thus, they promptly treat the patients accordingly and with happiness. 

Advocacy

Nurses play an important role in delivering quality health care for patients. There is more

to patient care for the treatment of diseases. Nurses act as patient advocates by explaining

complex medical procedures, translating medical terms, and helping patients make informed

decisions through the proper elaboration of medical consequences (Engel, & Prentice, 2013).

Nurses help patients with an in-depth understanding of medical procedures and outcomes. It is

important because nurses represent the whole team. Instead of a pharmacist walking to every

patient, the nurse does it. The nurse is responsible for breaking down to the patient what the

pharmacists could explain about drugs, side effects, and proper nutrition advice. 

Advocacy by the nurse makes the work environment better and easy for all other

Interprofessional workers. Through proper advisory and advocacy on the patient, there is an

increased recovery process. Patients feel so much supported and appreciated because they have

consent and understanding. Through advocacy, patients learn the importance of certain clinical

procedures that are essential for good health. Patients like are happy and satisfied top

comprehend their health status. The nurse advises a patient's health status through advocacy. The
patient understands how their condition is in a clear and precise way. It is thus an important role

the nurses play through advocacy. Patients feel supported and appreciated throughout their

treatment period, thereby improving the hospital's quality of health care.  

Resilience

As a profession, nursing is a service-based job that is labor-intensive and has a lot of

challenges. In the nursing profession, nurses are faced with the risk of patient death at any time

of their job. Losing a patient is not the best experience in the nursing profession because it may

affect the nurses' mental functionality. Trauma may kick in, and if the nurses are not strong

enough to battle the workplace stress, then the quality of patient care is greatly reduced. Through

teamwork, good communication, and good interrelation in an Interprofessional work set up,

medical errors are minimized (Engel, & Prentice, 2013). In turn, it reduces deaths related to

information breakdown. 

Moreover, good teamwork can help nurses be resilient to help patients even when

extending work shifts during emergency shifts at hospitals. Nursing shifts can be tiresome and

long. During emergency admission at hospitals, nurses are stretched to their limits. Nurses work

hand in hand with other partners of the Interprofessional team to save lives. Through the nurse's

resilience, they can work diligently. Nurses build self-esteem by replacing negative thoughts

with positive ones in treating patients. Patients benefit by having prompt and coordinated health

care quality. The chances of lives being lost due to negligence are greatly reduced. 

Evidence-Based Practice

Nurses play a great role in contributing to evidence-based practices through

Interprofessional team support. By working with senior nurses and doctors, nurses gain

knowledge and experience handling various patients with different health conditions. The
knowledge is vital in the nurse's profession because that evidence-based practice is important

inpatient health care (Engel, & Prentice, 2013). The use of the evidence-based practice in nursing

is important to ensure minimal patient treatment accidents. 

Interprofessional team interaction and support create an all interactive organization

culture. Senior professionals, including nurse managers and doctors, feel appreciated and respect

at work. Whatever the experience and guidelines they teach other junior nurses on patient

treatment is well-adhered to. Notes and literature can also be referred to in patient healthcare by

nurses. Knowledge acquired through experience is used so that patients can be treated well with

minimal repeated risks. It creates a good health care environment for the patient, thereby

improving the quality of health care.  

Summary

In a nutshell, nurses play an important role in promoting Interprofessional cohesion in

inpatient care. Right from advocating for the patient to make informed decisions concerning their

health to creating a compassionate work environment and pushing for resilience, nurses play a

big role in the Interprofessional organizational set up in an organization. iCARE is a population

management software that helps nurses in patient management. iCARE can be integrated with

electronic records to provide a comprehensive and easy view of patient information (Wyatt, Li,

Indranoi, & Bell, 2012). Patient information can be easily accessed at all times in one place by

all Interprofessional members. iCARE is an important channel to improve the organization's

communication flow, thus eradicating the chances of information breakdown. That will thus

greatly improve the coordination and cohesion of the functionality of the Interprofessional unit.

 In an Interprofessional setup, all professionals have to work coordinatively to ensure that

they are well treated. The doctor will offer a diagnosis or perform surgery after coordinating with
nurses and pharmacists on the required medication and practices. A hospital has many

departments; thus, manual coordination is tiresome, cumbersome and may have information

breakdown. With the integration of iCARE in hospitals, all coordination between departments is

done on one tab (Wyatt, Li, Indranoi, & Bell, 2012). ICARE coordination is done on tabs that

health care professionals can check for any services required from them. It makes coordination

and communication much easier. iCARE eradicates the chances of communication breakdown in

hospitals. Information is correctly transmitted in easily and quickly. It greatly increases the speed

of patient attendance and treatment in hospitals. 

With the integration of iCARE in health care systems, there is an improvement in

inpatient treatment. There is flawless and easy coordination between departments and

professionals; patients are correctly treated. Moreover, the iCARE pads are used as a source for

evidence-based literature. Nurses can use literature from gadgets in the treatment of patients.

Such evidence-based practices are good inpatient health care to minimize the chances of repeated

medical accidents. In conclusion, iCARE is important in creating a stable communication system

and coordination in a hospital set up.   

 
 References

Baik, D., Blakeney, E. A.-R., Willgerodt, M., Woodard, N., Vogel, M., & Zierler, B.

(2018). Examining interprofessional team interventions designed to improve nursing and team

outcomes in practice: a descriptive and methodological review. Journal of Interprofessional

Care, 32(6), 719–727. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2018.1505714

Engel, J., & Prentice, D. (2013). The ethics of interprofessional collaboration. Nursing

Ethics, 20(4), 426-435. 

Wyatt, T. H., Li, X., Indranoi, C., & Bell, M. (2012). Developing iCare v. 1.0: an

academic electronic health record. CIN: Computers, Informatics, Nursing, 30(6), 321-329.