Respond to classmates post. use sources 5 years or less.
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Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) occurs when all healthcare practitioners work together to provide ultimate care to patients to expedite their recovery. Through the contribution of renowned scholars such as Florence Nightingale, it is evident that the patient care environment plays an indispensable role in the achievement of positive patient outcomes. Accordingly, to improve patient outcomes, healthcare facilities across the globe have been implementing various strategies, including IPC interventions. Interprofessional collaboration, particularly practice-based IPC interventions, improve patient outcomes by improving the use of healthcare resources and reducing the length of a patient’s hospital stay and medical errors, which are drawbacks that arise due to lack of or insufficient communication and cooperation among involved practitioners.
Physicians are trained to handle specific biomedical issues; thus, they rarely concern themselves with aspects outside their field of specialization despite these factors affecting patient outcomes. Though specialization is crucial in the healthcare realm, it may lead to discord since some physicians may be unaware of the roles of other healthcare team members in patient care. In this regard, practice-based IPC interventions such as interprofessional meetings facilitate communication among physicians, enabling them to understand everyone’s role, thus establishing respect (Reeves et al., 2017). In health care, communication allows involved parties to share findings and observations, which are critical in determining the best treatment approach. Reeves et al. (2017) posit that interprofessional meetings improve adherence to prescription drugs. The rationale is that through these meetings, physicians share their knowledge regarding the best treatment approach to a certain malady. Therefore, considering every physician is knowledgeable in their field of specialization, sharing information through interprofessional meetings would facilitate patient-centered treatment, thereby improving patient outcomes.
The hierarchy of authority affects patient outcomes adversely. For a long time, nurses have been viewed as mere physicians’ assistants; however, the novel COVID-19 pandemic has illustrated the major role nurses play in patient care. According to Labrague, et al. (2021), engaging nurses by understanding their perspective regarding IPC is imperative in developing effective intervention strategies that ensure positive patient outcomes. The underlying principle is that doing so would enable nurses to feel appreciated and their roles respected, considering they are a key pillar in patient care. Nurses meet not only the biomedical needs of patients but also the emotional needs; thus, by collaborating with other physicians, patients would recover holistically, improving patient outcomes. Besides, through collaboration, the appropriate healthcare practitioner is involved, which reduces instances of job duplication, which can be tedious (Verwijs et al., 2020). Hence, IPC is effective in eliminating cases of burnout, which contribute to high turnover rates, particularly among nurses, an aspect that negatively affects patient outcomes. Therefore, embracing IPC would enable nurses to feel valued, ultimately improving patient outcomes.
The management and usage of healthcare resources influence patient and healthcare outcomes. The scarcity of resources in the healthcare sector calls for the implementation of strategies that ensure proper management and usage of available resources. Through interprofessional checklists, a practice-based IPC intervention, physicians can improve the use of healthcare resources; for instance, physicians, such as surgeons, nurses, and aestheticians, can countercheck the steps taken by other members of a healthcare team to ensure nothing is omitted (Reeves et al., 2017). What is more, externally facilitated interprofessional activities improve the use of healthcare resources since different physicians/providers use the same resources to achieve the same goal. For these reasons, IPC improves patient outcomes by ensuring proper usage of resources.
