Working Across Boundaries: A Case Study

Interprofessional collaboration involves a continuous interaction and knowledge sharing between professionals that will help improve patient care and outcomes. American Association of Colleges of Nursing (AACN, 2011) describes four competency domains to include:

Finkleman (2006, cited in Ndoro, 2014) states there are many advantages of working in multidisciplinary teams, such as professionals having a greater understanding of one another’s job roles. This permits greater communication between each other. Working within a multidisciplinary team enables collaborative working and improves patient care. Although collaborative person-centred care is vital, it needs improvement. Khalili, Hall & Deluca (2014) support Ndoro (2014) by stating that there is competition and hierarchies between health-care professionals, preventing collaborative working. The aim of interprofessional practice is to replace these barriers with co-operation and equality to provide person-centred care. Khaili, Hall & Deulca (2014) go on to explain that failures to implement collaborative practice has led to destruction of care, disappointment for both clients and practitioners and poor quality of care is then the outcome.

The Institute of Medicine (IOM) has a strong stance on nurses and leadership. They believe that nurses are a vital component to health care system and nurses in leadership roles can have a positive impact on such. Nurses are in all sorts of roles within the health care systems ranging from a staff nurse, nurse managers, to advance practice, all the way to congress (Finkelman & Kenner, 2013). In addition, they even serve in the boardroom within some health care organizations. Leadership doesn’t necessarily mean a nurse in a manager position, but a nurse who has an influence on staff. (Finkelman, et al, 2013). The importance to having all health care members working together in leadership roles is imperative to positive changes within the health care setting. Nurses can give an insight on matters that only a nurse can, and this is an important viewpoint that needs to be included when

A healthcare system should include an interprofessional team that works well together. If everyone in the interprofessional team is not cooperative or passionate about building the group, this may impact a patient’s outcome. The goal of an interprofessional team within a healthcare system is to provide the finest quality of care for their patients. If one or multiple cannot put the effort to work with others, the intended result may be corrupt. It is vital for healthcare interprofessional teams to function as a whole to provide the greatest result.

There is agreement between team members to put their best effort in facing challenging, problems, and also meeting the team objectives. There may be collaborative cross-team and cross-boundary working. Shared leadership in practical enable members are fully involved in appropriate decision making. This responsibility should be delegated to members appropriately. Also, constructive debates are welcomed to provide and improve high quality patient care. Every team members were allowed to have meeting regularly to review the performance in order to optimize the team efficacy, mutual

A team that has good culture of teamwork and mutual motivation will make the members more productive and smarter. Such a team where seamless and effective relationships exist, members are poised to learn from one another, develop skills and leverage on such internally gained skills to expedite work processes thereby increasing overall efficiency, reducing downtimes and knowledge gaps. Collaboration among such team members will make members to perform at their best by working on what they do best.

Like everywhere else the key point is communication. If this area is running well, then achieving the goals are deliver the best centre care is much easy.

For some jobs you would need teamwork skills to get your tasks done in time. In my placement at Vellore Woods Density most of the time we need to use teamwork skills because we are handling with people’s teeth and need to communicate with each other on what we need such as equipment’s. Patients are sometimes hard to keep them calm when they are all worked up or simply really nervous. We would try to reassure them, and tell them things would work out well. I learned a trick from my co-workers that if you keep calm, the patients will keep calm as well. They will also distract them by having mini conversations or have a conversation with each other (dentist and assistant) when the patients is going through surgery. This makes the patient be focused on the conversation then what’s going on with the

Working in a hospital setting with a team that has members from many disciplines can sometimes lead to issues that are easily solved if only they are acknowledged. Some of the major issues within IP care are philosophical differences, disparity in power amongst the health care professionals (HCP), communication between the members, and inexperience in team working. The solutions that are mentioned in the following paragraphs are applicable in general and are not specific to certain cases, hence, the solutions do not apply to every

‘’When person, and the interests of a person should be at the centre of all relationships. People and where appropriate their carers, must be recognized as partners in the planning of services which should be integrated and based on collaborative working across all sectors’’ (Health, Social Services and Public Safety)

The care that provided to the patient is more safe and efficient if it is given through the teamwork. It is better than the care provided by an individual as the ideas of the care only focused on one perspective.

This situation presented an unresolved conflict between myself and the vice principal in my clinical placement. This conflict can be linked with the nursing concepts of interprofessional collaboration and communication, role clarification, and power. Therefore, it is understandable that nursing students working within an interprofessional team that does not demonstrate respect and understanding will result to ineffective care, health promotion delivery, and impede professional development.

Good partnership working is also critical for building strong, effective relationships within and across organisations. Within an organisation this means taking a joined-up approach to designing and delivering united services for the benefit of service users. Excellent communication and multi-disciplinary team working are the key elements to successful partnership working within an organisation and fundamental to ensuring a smooth running approach to care. The development of high quality, co-ordinated services across different care settings and sectors requires organisations and agencies to work together. This will include working across organisational boundaries between statutory, voluntary, community and independent sectors.

Having the skill of communication, is the first step in teamwork. Being a group of individual players, a sense of unity has to be formed. A team needs to work together to achieve a common goal. A quote from

Supply Chain Management (SCM) department encounters a number of different stakeholders. Many different working relationships take place within each individual work on, from colleagues to clients, stakeholders, and suppliers. The internal supply chain that delivers the service is complicated and requires the co-ordination and co-operation of individuals and teams who have different skills and priorities. Hence, understanding stakeholder needs and working effectively with them is critical to the success of the procurement team. Cleland (1995: 151) recognised the need to develop an organisational structure of stakeholders through understanding each stakeholder’s interests, and negotiating both individually and collectively to define the best way