Reflection on Concepts of Interprofessional Practice in Health and Social Care - Coursework Example

Reflection on Concepts of Inter-Professional Practice in Health and Social care BY Reflection on Concepts of Inter-Professional Practice in Health and Social care Introduction Group projects arise when a group of professionals meet and work together to achieve an agreed outcome. Therefore, each individual is expected to put on efforts to enable the team achieve an agreed goal. However, the group members work together through interaction with each other and sharing of ideas and opinions. Therefore, in a group, each member has defined roles, an organization identity and a set defined outcome that they are expected to achieve. Thus, in this case, we are going to carry out a reflection on the concepts of inter-professional practice on the health and social care. The significance of this reflection to professional practice is that it will instil skills to medical professionals. However, this reflection will enable the heath care professional to manage professional and personal impacts while addressing the patient’s wellbeing. Consequently, reflection assists health care professionals in learning and developing methods of working together to achieve a shared outcome with fellow professionals. In addition, it helps on the experiences that will enable the professionals to weigh up the results and benefits of the project management. This essay will give an analysis of my experiences of working in the learning set and will cover the following areas: product achievement, communication skill, social skill and the reflective skills. The essay uses Kolb reflection model. We were in a group consisting of the following professionals: operational department practitioner, radiography nurses, acupuncturists and occupational therapists. The first group session was held in the classroom and we introduced ourselves to each other, as well as explained what our professional ambitions are. The first activity was to come up with a group name. In addition, we also discussed how we would be organizing our meetings, time keeping, and communication. Furthermore, we elected the group leaders. However, in the first meeting we also planned on ways of booking meeting rooms for the group. As a group, we were given an online activity to complete throughout the project. Our first activity that we did as individuals was to discover learning styles using the Vark model. After, doing the online test, I found that my learning style is auditory, that is, I best learn through lectures, discussions and tapes. However, knowing my learning style will help me to focus and maximize my learning on the mode that benefits me most. I actually learn from listening to lectures. Before, I thought I was a kinaesthetic learner only to be shocked that there are other styles of learning. Then we proceeded to the next second online activity and the role for this was to identify the group roles and positions. The group members were to discuss their new found role in the online group forum. The first meeting was held in the lecture Sayol, and not everyone was present. However, the team leader advised that each member to research on their own profession and come with the information during the next group meeting. In the meantime, the group held other meetings in the library. A SWOT analysis was carried out to identify the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. The findings were posted on the group forum. Finally, the final activity was about reflecting on clinical experience in practice. Then the group finalized the task and we had to discuss our reflections in a lecture. Feelings I felt that we would have failed to complete the tasks. Therefore, I was nervous since this might have led to missing marks. I felt susceptible since I was working with people I did not know. Consequently, after the first meeting was successful, I changed my attitude towards the group because we had managed to agree on a group name. In addition, we managed to complete the first activity without hitches, although some members were absent. The group embraced collaboration where each individual was expected to share ideas and opinions freely, helping each other and giving constructive criticisms and bringing together ideas. As a group, we willingly helped each other especially considering that we were from different professions and each member had to understand fully what other member had. I found myself discussing fully my ideas, feelings and made communications with my fellow professionals. As a team, we interacted and worked together and this helped us to achieve shared objectives. Evaluation The best thing with the group is that we worked together as group members regardless of our professionals. I felt that we were more than a team. The group members freely shared ideas and opinions on how the tasks should be completed and presented. The group members had shown concern on our last meeting and wanted to have high-quality presentations and therefore, requested we look for what was omitted or added. The negative part of the task was that, at first, the group lost focus. Analysis After the completion of the SWOT analysis, each person’s strengths and weaknesses were posted in the group forum. However, I found this part too personal and little intrusive. At first, I found it too personal and I was very uncomfortable with people knowing both my weaknesses and strengths. I believe as a group leader that each and every member benefited from the group activity since at the end, every member was able and willing to contribute ideas on how to go about presentations. Product achievement In this part, I amgoing to discuss the contribution I have made towards the overall learning during the module. My contribution occurred when I realized that every professional has its own roles, skills and responsibilities. Therefore, my contribution will be making efficient practices in managing, curing and treating various ailments. Therefore, I wanted to contribute to methods of the team working in the day-to-day life in the nursing profession. I was looking for a better way of working together, but I found that the only way was in working as a team. Therefore, my contribution to this field will be to instil team work in every area and modules to bring the best in the nursing profession. Consequently, I have recognised that if we are taught together in a multi-professional educational setting and we have learned to collaborate as a team during school time, then we might be working together effectively in the professional lives in clinical settings (Dossey, Certificate, Keegan and Co-Director International Nurse Coach Association, 2012). Thus, my contribution to the profession is to learn together as a team in order to promote collaborative practices in the nursing practices to help achieve the objectives of curing ailments. However, I made this suggestion since there is the prerequisite for effective collaborative in order to provide optimal and safe patient care. However, I based my suggestion on my past experiences on the field of health care services. I thought it would bring teamwork, shared knowledge in the profession, and learning together without any defensive boundary. There are some institutional hierarchy that prevent the team members from contributing their knowledge, and this ultimately affects patient care. The benefit of collaborative practices is to improve the professional practices in providing the health care services. My suggestions will have the following positive impacts in the profession: Appreciation of the importance of personalities, communication and interpersonal skills for liaison. Gaining experience on how other students and members of the team work Improve knowledge of illness Greater appreciation of how wards function Communication skill: In this part, I will discuss the communication skill used during the modules. In our discussion, we embraced strong communication skills. Every team member was given a chance to explain their own ideas; each and every team member participated in the discussion. In addition, they expressed their feelings in an open way. Moreover, each team member listened carefully to every contributing member. We had an interacting time to listen to each other as well as asking questions to clarify the emotions and the ideas. We also had a sense of disagreement in some ideas, but the group members initiated conversations to bring down the tension (Bulman, Lathlean and Gobbi, 2012). I also had to encourage the group members to reflect on the activities and interactions. Besides the positive outcomes, we also encountered problems in this section. Communication was an issue for the group since people were not willing to express their ideas during the meetings. In the first meeting where we had to choose the group name, discuss the role for each individual, plan the meetings in advance, introduce each other and allocate duties, it was successful. Although we experienced a challenge with individuals who made it difficult for the allocation of tasks since they were not willing to contribute and give a way forward, some of the members just sit quietly and let others lead them (Addy, Browne, Blake and Bailey, 2015). From the onset of the first meeting, we agreed to set the objectives of the meetings and the method of communication; each individual decided that we needed to use the online forum in communication. In addition, we also planned to be meeting every Tuesday after two weeks. The challenge we experienced in this was that group members hardly communicated on the online forum. Afterwards, we decided to carry out our SWOT analysis and we identified strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and the threats. The identified weaknesses were accurate, but the strengths identified were not accurate. Some of the strengths, such as honesty, were not accurate since sometimes the members would agree to complete tasks, but at the end fail to do so. On my part, I was accommodating each and every idea given to avoid tension in the group discussion which led to inconsistency of ideas. There are times I found myself speaking too much and I felt that other members would perceive me as being too domineering. Sometimes I felt uncomfortable in giving out my ideas to the members since some of them were not willing to contribute their thoughts (Kidd, Kenny and McKinstry, 2015). Face-to-face communication was successful since individuals opened up during the meeting to reflect on the activity and ideas given, especially to the topic about the personal care. The challenge with face to face communication is that it did not adopt the blackboard facility as we had planned and therefore, we failed to maintain the standards of the communication. On the part of the content, we had a combination of knowledge and experiences on the health care services. The communication was also supported by individual’s own personal reasoning and analysis (Radley et al., 2015). We had agreed with the members to make use of magazines, newspapers, and periodicals to enable us to gather information. Social skills In this part, I will discuss the development of supportive relationship during the module. In a group project, the role given to an individual plays a vital and expressive arts therapy and work to develop a coherent discussion in the lives of the project. In the project, we helped each other to build on the friendship with authenticity. The studies show that to be human is to interact and make friendship with other people (Bridges, Davidson, Odegard, Maki and Tomkowiak, 2011). In real sense, people will always have different reasons in a group project and always have differing things out of it. Feeling safe The first thing that came up in the first meeting was a quite a strong feeling. I wanted to be in a group that i felt safe in. Therefore, I wanted a group that supported and respected my contributions. As luck would have it, I found myself in such a group. Sharing feelings The group dynamics helped to timely check on how each individual was feeling about the task. Therefore, I felt excited about working together as a group where we would share feelings with each other. Sharing opinions In the group task, everyone contributed their thoughts and opinions on the group discussion. I developed a strategy to write questions, ideas and experiences that were relevant. In the process of discussion, ideas and opinions become apparent to me (Reeves, Lewin, Espin and Zwarenstein, 2011). Working cooperatively I felt that the group worked cooperatively with each other. Working cooperatively means that each individual worked closely with each other and have brought out the best in other. I identified several differences of issues and as a group; we had to clarify the differences for and against the issue to bring out the best in each other. One of the most significant things in the team was that we understood our roles within the group (Arnold and Boggs, 2015). We had to build a productive working relationship, develop understanding and mutual trust for each other. The roles given to each individual measured how each person behaved, contributed and interrelated with others. In the process of our discussion, I was given the role to become the leader, and the group performed very best. I benefited in the social skills since I became aware of my skills (Edwards, Weinstein, Goetz and Alexander, 2014). Reflective skills In this part, we discussed the way in which links have been made between the module and own practice. In regards to my reflective skills and making links between the module and my own practice, this would be contributed to by the way the group progressed and developed to become a team. Using kold’s learning model The process in the learning model includes: Experience Observations and ideas reviewing and reflecting on the experience Development of ideas learning from experience Testing ideas in practice planning, trying out what you have learned. Experience From my experience in the group, we formed the group as a team to be able to focus on current issues affecting the provision of health care services. However, this is the first stage in team development (Kolb, 2014). In the first meeting, we met to choose the group name and divide the roles amongst ourselves. I was chosen as a group leader in the team. We focused much on the presentations and planned to use a blackboard on our meetings. After the first meeting, we proceeded to our next step: storming. This is the stage where we chose the group leaders and agreed on ideas and topics to discuss. Third, was the norming stage where the group started by getting new ideas from each individuals. At this stage, we set objectives of the team and what we were willing to achieve at the end. This stage took time since we had different ideas on the topic and therefore, agreeing on our final product became very difficult for us. Fourth, was the performing stage, which came after agreeing on our final goals; we started researching. We started with posters and blackboard facilities to post information about our respective profession. Finally, we had the adjourning stage. This stage came after finalizing with the project and presented it. Observation and ideas reviewing At times, I lost focus as a group leader and forgot where we were heading as a team, hence making it difficult for us to keep on the right track. At some instances, the SWOT analysis we carried was inaccurate thus making things more difficult; on the part of weaknesses, it was accurate. The strengths identified were open and honest. This was proved wrong when each individual was given a task and a large number of us were not timely in handing over the completed task. During the storming stage, we had a conflict but finally, group members agreed (LEcuyer, Pole and Leander, 2015). The group took a lot of time at this stage due to tossing of ideas back and forth. This stage helped us a lot in development of social and communication skills. We were able to build strong communication skills and develop lasting relationships after solving the conflicts. As a result of success at this stage, we managed to continue with the next stage until the final stage. Development of ideas learning from experience I had an experience on the health care services since I was working with an organization offering the services. Therefore, I managed to get ideas of the topic that we need to discuss as a group. I brought my ideas on board to try and convince my group members to research on teamwork and collaborative practices in the organization. I found this idea very significant since teamwork would give the nursing professionals a greater output on their services. Testing ideas into practice After completion of the project, we all prepared for the presentation and each group member was assigned a part for presentation. However, we had to practice and test the ideas before presentation. Everyone was involved in the presentation. Conclusion In our group discussion, we used the Vark Model to define learning styles and this helped each individual in carrying out the project requirements as per each individual’s learning styles. In addition, we also defined our skills and stated how they would maximize effectiveness and the support on our group roles. However, they are subject to change. Therefore, we were supposed to have been allocated tasks depending on our roles. Communication in a group can be achieved well if the group members are willing to cooperate with each other. I functioned much better on areas that required face to face presentations. Action plan However, from my experience in the group, I think we failed to set ground rules that are needed in every group. Therefore, in practise, when planning for group meetings, the first thing I would do is to set ground rules and agree on objectives of our meetings. In addition, we would carry out an accurate SWOT analysis to be able to take advantage of each individual’sstrength. Consequently, I would also set objectives for the group. However, this involves deadlines for completing tasks for the project. The group failed to set deadlines for completing tasks that made members take longer before submitting their parts. The group performed best when working on the tasks on face to face presentations. In conclusion, group work needs better development in all stages to strengthen it. In order for the group to achieve its set objectives, they must be simple, measurable, accurate, realistic and timely. In addition, the group needs to have ground rules, realistic deadlines and the focus. Therefore, group reflections have helped us to understand our limitations, reflect on experiences, and to develop and learn through problem-solving strategies. References Addy, C. L., Browne, T., Blake, E. W. and Bailey, J., 2015.Enhancing Interprofessional Education: Integrating Public Health and Social Work Perspectives.American journal of public health, 105(S1), S106-S108. Arnold, E. C., and Boggs, K. U., 2015.Interpersonal relationships: Professional communication skills for nurses. Elsevier Health Sciences. Bridges, D. R., Davidson, R. A., Odegard, P. S., Maki, I. V. and Tomkowiak, J., 2011. Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education. 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