Respondto the following individual’s discussion posts. There need to be at least 2 paragraphs per question with a minimum of 7 sentences per paragraph.
Original Question:
1. In your own words, what is interprofessional collaboration in healthcare? Why are interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborationso important?
2. From the eLearning modulesection entitled “Clues to role boundaries,” choose one of the four mechanisms listed that helps to define the roles and responsibilities or scope of practice for health care professionals. Describe how that mechanism contributes to the understanding of role boundaries within interprofessional teams
Mechanisms for understanding role boundaries (covered in the eLearning module)
- Accreditation StandardsLicensure StandardsProfessional CompetenciesCode of Ethics
3. Review, the core competencies found on page 10 of the Core Competencies (Links to an external site.) (Links to an external site.) document, and reference one or more of them in your discussion on these questions.How to you see yourself incorporating interprofessional collaboration in your future career? What are some ways that you believe these competencies are being practiced in the current pandemic? Explain.
GABY
Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is having an understanding of your own role in healthcare as well as the role of other health professionals in the care team. This allows good communication within the care team to best assist the patient. I believe that interprofessional educationis very important because it allows for students in different professions to learn to work together to best assist and improve a patients health outcome. Interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborationare very important together becauseinterprofessional educationallows for more effective interprofessional collaboration when working in healthcare and working with a healthcare team to best assist the needs of the patient.
SCOPE of practice can determine the boundaries within each professional practice. The mechanism, Licensure Standards, contributes to the understanding of role boundaries within interprofessional teams. Licensure Standards allow for you to learn the boundaries of your profession’s role and responsibilities. It also allows for you to learn the role of those in your team.
I can see myself incorporating Competency 2 in my future career by using the knowledge of my role in the health care team and the knowledge of those in the rest of the healthcare team to best assist the healthcare needs of the patients. My future career is to become a Diagnostic Medical Sonographer. I know this career works with many health professionals. The role of a Sonographer is to take ultrasounds of the human body. These images are used to help doctors and others in the healthcare team to treat the patient.
I believe that competency 2 is being practiced in the current pandemic by health professionals in many ways. During the pandemic health professionals must work together and adhere to all the CDC guidelines to best treat patients. Competency 2 is being practiced by having certain health professionals treat patients with Covid. Competency 2 is also being used within the development of vaccines and vaccinating patients to prevent Covid from spreading. During the pandemic Competency 2 has also been used in regarding the advancement of treatments of patients and advance the treatment of those in the population as well as a way to recommend patients to stop the spread by wearing masks and washing hands frequently.
References
Interprofessional Educational Collaborative (2016) Core competencies for
interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, DC:
Interprofessional Education Collaborative.
ASHLEY
- Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare is when two or more professionals in different departments or specialties work together to provide care or solve a problem in healthcare. Interprofessional collaboration is essentially teamwork with professionals not of the same classification. This is a critical component in quality healthcare. Collaborating professionally ensures that a patient or problem to solve is looked at from many different angles – each doctor, nurse, therapist, and provider is not expected to be an expert in everything – they have a scope of practice and a knowledge base that suits the issues and people they come into contact with on a daily basis; each person’s knowledge and experience being different. A patient or a medical problem being looked at by those with such different trainings, educations, and backgrounds ensures that the patient is looked at as a “whole” rather than as a piece that a provider specializes in. Interprofessional education involves both learning with and from each other in a similar aspect. Either training together, for example, an ultrasound technician and a resident physician both receiving training on a new piece of sonography equipment together, or educating one another, for example, a pharmacist teaching a pharmacy technician about a newly prescribed medication. For the same reasons as interprofessional collaboration, interprofessional education is vital to the strength of a medical team.
- In determining the boundaries of an role as a healthcare provider it’s important to consider the code of ethics for the specific healthcare profession in question. This code gives guidance for how to proceed in situations that may be unclear, murky, or hard to navigate. A code of ethics helps to clarify what your responsibility is, which can be particularly helpful in situations that become emotional or questionable when you may want to do more than what you are held by standards to do, or more than is right for you to do.
- It’s hard to look at the four core competencies of collaborative healthcare and not see a single one that isn’t applicable in almost every day or week for healthcare workers. I imagine, specifically in the role that I hope to pursue as first a registered nurse, and then as a nurse practitioner, in pediatric mental health, I will personally get familiar with all of these; particularly competency three. Competency three focuses on communicating with patients, families, community, and other healthcare providers in a way that fosters health and disease prevention and treatment collaboratively (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016). In working, particularly with children, it will be important to work as a strong member of a team- children don’t come in alone, and will be usually surrounded by families, caregivers, or guardians who I will need to work in collaboration with, even in the event that we don’t see eye to eye, in a respectful and positive manner that promotes the wellbeing of the child I’m treating. Working in mental health the chances of being the child’s only provider are probably slim to none, and collaboration between primary care, potentially emergency care, and other mental health providers will be necessary to coordinate complete care and follow up to ensure the total well-being of the child is our priority at all time. I know my oldest son, Bradley, currently sees a psychiatrist for his mental health needs. His psychiatrist manages his medications, but works in collaboration with his sleep medicine nurse practitioner, his primary care doctor, and his occupational therapist. That’s four different specialties, four different classifications of healthcare worker, all collaborating for one child. I cannot imagine the amount of collaboration they do every day, and that I will one day do as well. Looking at the world currently during the COVID-19 pandemic the competency that stuck out to me the most was competency four. Competency four places focus on working as a team to deliver care in a way that best benefits the population in a manner that is timely, efficient, and equitable (Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2016). I can think of so many examples during the pandemic that encompass healthcare workers ability to display this competency but two that stick out the most are the shift to telehealth. Telehealth became the “it” thing when people were in lockdown during the majority of the pandemic and became far more accessible to the average population that may not have had access to it before. This was as a means of keeping both patients and healthcare providers safe but it allowed populations that maybe otherwise would not have been able to take time off of work, or had transportation to access care in an equitable manner. The other example that sticks out to me is the initiatives to get people vaccinated against COVID-19. Regardless of your insurance status, regardless of where you were or who you were the healthcare community made sure everyone was able to access vaccinations. Is your insurance not accepted at CVS regularly? Doesn’t matter, come in. Don’t have insurance? Doesn’t matter, come in. Don’t have a car to make it to a pharmacy? We’ll vaccinate you at school or work. The delivery of vaccinations was incredibly efficient and equitable to all who wanted one.
References:
Interprofessional Education Collaborative. (2016). Core competencies for
interprofessional collaborative practice: 2016 update. Washington, DC: Interprofessional Education Collaborative.