Unit 18 - Multi-Disciplinary Working (P6,M3,D2)

Inter professional working is formed from different health and social care professionals working together towards a common goal to meet the needs of a service user. It is about developing relationships within and between organisations and services involved in planning and delivering care and support to the service users we support. By working collaboratively it brings together different types of professionals to share their particular knowledge, experience, skills, occupational values and perspectives to improve service

In the beginning of this activity, I did not know much about collaboration between different healthcare professionals. It helped me to clarify the meaning of a healthcare team and also to understand the role of different professionals in the team. Different team members have their specific roles and all of them work together to achieve a common goal –healthier patient. They work independently, but when it comes to decision making they seek advice from other healthcare provider in order to do the best for the patient. Not only doctor, physiotherapists, pharmacists and etc. are considered being part of the team. Patients must also be considered part of the decision making process,

Donald is a Caucasian male who is 26 years old. He was recently involved in a severe car crash where he suffered a closed head traumatic brain injury (TBI) with focal damage to the frontolateral cortex as well as a fractured wrist at the radial/ ulnar and humerus on the left arm, his right femur is fractured along with 2 ribs. He is now in the Intensive care unit under a coma and is ranked at level 2 on the Ranchos los amigos scale. He is showing generalized responses but has not regained full consciousness and requires total care.

This is where professionals from multiple agencies meet together to work towards the best possible care of an individual.

We can improve partnership working through effective communication and information sharing. By working as a team and having regular staff meetings, with colleagues and other health care professionals.

There are many professions in healthcare sector. There are doctors, nurses, speech therapists, interpreter, receptionists, care assistants, dietitian, line managers, chiropodist and managers. All these teams work together to meet the required needs of the service users in collaboration with each other. They also have their different roles to play in the multidisciplinary (MDT). I work as Care Assistant in care home. My duties are to get the service users up and ready for breakfast, make their beds, take those who need to see the doctor, speech therapist and others. Each of these professionals have their roles to play to ensure the smooth running of the care home. The families also play vital role in helping to settle any fear the service users have with their care plans.Staff should empower service users. The rights of care workers and service users is always there which has cause a dilemma in a care settings. Care workers should be supported when dilemmas raise their ugly heads. We should all work to together to accomplish a common

Pharmacist dispenses medications based on doctors order along with discussing medication usage and contraindication. Nurse pharmacist collaboration occurs to improve medication safety in a timely manner. Physical therapists help patients improve movement along with managing pain. Collaboration occurs when documents are needed for the therapist that will be helpful in providing treatment and to decide what treatment will be best for the patient during this time to improve movement and pain. Physicians perform history and physical to determine a diagnosis and come up with a treatment plan for the condition. Radiologist technologist work with diagnostic imaging to help determine the cause of the patient’s illness. Nurses collaborate with radiologist technologist to review results and see what caused the condition to occur and the best way of treating it. Respiratory therapist work with patients who have trouble breathing so collaboration occurs to assess the breathing to see whether it is being treated or if the plan of care needs to be changed to prevent the breathing problems from getting

Patient 1 – Two individuals come to the emergency department with head injuries. One is a 25 years old, has just been in a motor vehicle accident (MVA) and has a temporal lobe injury. The other, 65 years old, has increasing confusion after a fall that happened earlier in the week.

Working in a team is an important responsibility by understanding each other’s role which may include doctor, nurse, occupational therapist, physiotherapist and many more. Team members divide the work based on their scope practice such as acute care, metal health care, homecare etc. Interprofessional collaboration practice is decision making and communicating between individuals for their patient’s health based on their knowledge and skills. It helps to promote habits, maximizing health resources, leading care to be safer with patient’s satisfaction and Canada’s health care (Kenaszchuk, Reeves, Nicholas, & Zwarenstein, 2010).

In order to collaborate successfully with the other members of the team, they have to ‘work together’. Collaboration implies “working together to achieve something that neither agency could achieve alone” (cited by Biggs in Day, 2006, p9). It involves effective communication and contribution to a common goal – and the health and wellbeing of the patient and shared responsibility of the outcome. Each team requires a quality leader, regular meetings attended by all members, joint assessment, regular reviews of patient records which should include ‘shared care plans’; joint decisions following consultation and task delegation to individual team members with the outcome being that “care must be structured, organised and systematically provided to each person in a variety of ways” (Creating an Interprofessional Workforce, 2007, p10).

According to American Nurses Association (2010) Scope and Standards of Nursing Practice, collaboration is defined as, “a professional healthcare partnership grounded in a reciprocal and respectful recognition and acceptance of: each partner’s unique expertise, power, and sphere of influence and responsibilities; commonality of goals; the mutual safeguarding of the legitimate interest of each party; and the advantages of such a relationship”.(p. 64). Collaboration amongst health care providers is very crucial in providing quality care to patients. Integration of disciplinary teams, improves communication, coordination, and most importantly, the safety and quality of patient care. It provides interaction between team members allowing

According to Petri (2010), interdisciplinary collaboration is an interpersonal process which is characterized by health care professionals from multiple disciplines with shared objectives, decision-making, responsibility, and power, working together to solve patient care problems. Although the concept of interdisciplinary collaboration has existed in health care since 1978, there is still ambiguity over the meaning of collaboration, and this impedes its complete integration in health care. Petri’s study aims to provide an in-depth understanding of the meaning of interdisciplinary collaboration so the concept can be fully incorporated into health care practice (Petri, 2010).

I definitely think that those three professional interact together because something they need to interact with each other in order to help the patient. For example, if a patient goes see a counselor, but he needs medical help, the counselor will refer him with a physician. The counselor will have to communicate with the physician about the patient situation in order to help

What benefit comes from these group mixing and working together? In order for a hospital to function properly these groups need to work together. What would be most beneficial for patient care is a hospital that

From an early age we are instilled the importance of teamwork. The lessons may come from a soccer field, a classroom group project, or even a song on Sesame Street. Regardless of our future careers, we are all likely to experience some sort of teamwork requirement, even if it is as simple as getting along with your co-workers.