Leadership Development for Interprofessional Education

Question: Discuss about the Leadership Development for Interprofessional Education. Answer: Introduction: Interprofessional practice is a collaborative clinical approach in which multiple healthcare providers from different professional background work as a team together with patients and their families as well as significant others and communities purposely to provide the highest quality of health care. This healthcare provision approach involves all the professional carders.They help in making the collaborative team making decisions on health and social issues affecting their clients and providing healthcare services to the clients based on their scope of practice and areas of specialization while ensuring that they meet common health goals for the patient, family or community (World Health Organization, 2010). Thus, the interprofessional group handling a client has a shared responsibility, and for this reason, they must demonstrate a certain level of knowledge, professional skills, values and attitudes that are essential in specific contexts of care. Some of the important attributes r equired such that collaborative practice is a success include respect for each other amongst the team members and trust. The team members should turn to each other for answers besides supporting each other whenever there are shortcomings as well as celebrating together upon achieving a certain level of success (Stein-Parbury, 2014). Interprofessional practice is such a significant undertaking in ensuring the provision of patient-centered quality care and health outcomes (Institute of Medicine (U.S.), 2015). Firstly, comprehensive quality care is realized when multiple caregivers from the different professional background are involved. Thus, there is increased access to care and other resources which are key in improving clinical outcomes of not only chronic diseases but also acute ones (Thistlethwaite, 2012). The professionals share expertise and challenges which culminate in patient safety. The approach also reduces tension and conflict among caregivers as they work towards meeting certain goals. According to World Health Organization (2010), it also results in better utilization of clinical resources. As stipulated by Stein-Parbury, (2014), the strategic approach also ensures that recruitment of care providers is easier while reducing turnover rates Discuss the roles and responsibilities of selected healthcare team members Besides co-competencies such as maintenance of a collaborative environment with mutual respects and trust, appropriate professional interpersonal skills and attitudes, each professional in a collaborative healthcare team has their distinct roles and responsibilities. The nurse in a team works as the coordinator of all members whose work is to coordinate integrated services by all team members through proper management of information that can be used to make clinical decisions (Forman, Jones, Thistlethwaite, 2014). Nursing roles also include promotion of health, prevention of illness, rehabilitation and provision of palliative care. They are also supposed to ensure that there is enough provision of health education to patients, families, and communities. They are also charged with the responsibility of providing patient-centered care by collaborating with others as well as facilitating comprehensive care. This can be possible through timely communication to all team members, patients and their families on the planned care, delivery and evaluation of the outcome. Nurses also have a responsibility of acting as patient advocates by ensuring confidentiality and referring them to resources and facilities that can guarantee continuity of care. On the other hand, the physicians primary role is to act as a clinical leader of the collaborative team. The physician makes definitive preventive and curative clinical decisions upon synthesizing and interpreting data obtained from the team and patient. They admit patients, provide them with care and monitor their progress in collaboration with other team members. Paramedics are also important members of collaborative practice even though they are not involved in the provision of palliative care. They provide emergency care to patients especially outside the healthcare institutions by making unsupervised critical decisions before transporting and handing them over to other team members for continued care (Goodman Clemow, 2012). They are responsible for the provision of referral and care options as well as initial primary care by performing roles related to those of nurses. Evidently, the roles of each member in a team are related and meant to support and supplement each other. Discuss the use of inter-professional communication in health care Effective and adequate interprofessional communication is fundamental in the provision of quality healthcare services to clients. It ensures there is proper coordination between all members of the collaborative team (World Health Organization, 2010). As stipulated by Institute of Medicine (U.S.) (2015), ineffective communication is a significant contributor to a number of preventable medical errors. The communication is built on mutual trust and respect, and for it to be effective, it must be communicated clearly, politely and in a timely manner. Sufficient information should be provided to appropriate health care providers concerning the patient as well as respond to other healthcare providers. As pointed out by Goodman and Clemow (2012), interprofessional communication takes verbal and non-verbal as well as formal and non-formal communication through the use of tools such as clinical progress reports, handoffs, documentation charts, nursing cardex, assessment reports and treatment sheets among others. Documented information meant for other team members should use standardized terminologies and acronyms to prevent misinterpretations and errors. Verbal communication must also demonstrate the use of appropriate and professional language use to other healthcare providers, patients, families, and communities. References Forman, D., Jones, M., Thistlethwaite, J. (2014).Leadership development for interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan. Goodman, B., Clemow, R. (2012).Nursing and Collaborative Practice. Exeter: Learning Matters Ltd. Institute of Medicine (U.S.). (2015).Measuring the impact of interprofessional education on collaborative practice and patient outcomes. Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press. Stein-Parbury, J. (2014). Patient and person: Interpersonal skills in nursing (5th ed.). Sydney: Elsevier Thistlethwaite, J. (2012).Values-based interprofessional collaborative practice: Working together in health care. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. World Health Organisation. (2010). Framework for Action on Interprofessional Education andCollaborative Practice. Geneva: World Health Organisation (Available from https://whqlibdoc.who.int/hq/2010/WHO_HRH_HPN_10.3_eng.pdf