Essential for Health and Human Service Professionals - Essay Example

Running Head: ESSENTIAL FOR HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICE PROFESSIONALS School: Topic: Essential for Health and Human Service Professionals Date of Presentation: Introduction The need for providing quality healthcare is necessitating a movement from the conventional healthcare practice to a modern one whereby different professionals collaborate to improve service provision. Inter-professional practice in healthcare involves the collaboration of various healthcare professionals such as nurses, physicians and dentists among others to develop better methods of dealing with issues regarding the quality of healthcare. Teamwork is one of the aspects of healthcare provision that are important in satisfying the needs of the patients as well as healthcare providers. Patient care needs to be holistic for effective recovery and is accomplished through inter-professional practice whereby each professional learns from the others while on the other hand the others learn from him/her. This essay is a critique of the significance for health and human service professionals to understand the roles of other disciplines to enable an interdisciplinary approach to the design and provision of quality care and service. It illustrates how consumers, professionals, health and human service agencies, and government interact to plan and deliver health and human services. Inter-professional Practice Healthcare professionals interact to combine the various skills they possess for the purpose of accomplishing the desired completeness for provision of quality healthcare services. Jones & Creedy (2009) observe that the reason why there are variations in the knowledge that health professionals possess is the fact that no single person can have all the skills required for the provision of healthcare services. It might take an extremely long period to complete all the courses involved in the healthcare field. The reason for dividing it in to smaller units and educating different experts in each unit is therefore justified. All the units are focused on maintenance of good health amongst the public. The professionals working in the various healthcare fields such as nurses, physicians, pharmacists and dentists among others are therefore integral components of the healthcare system. Competition between any of the professionals would be meaningless especially due to the fact that their tasks are not similar but they have to be accomplished in order for the organizations offering healthcare services to accomplish their goals (Jessup 2007). An example of an important collaboration in healthcare for the safety of patients is the relationship between a physician, patient and a pharmacist. After a physician recommends medication to a patient, it is usually the role of pharmacists to dispense the drugs. They have a wide knowledge in regard to administration of prescriptions after which they offer advice to patients and doctors regarding the choice, prescribed amount, action on the body as well as the possible side effects of the drugs as well as ensuring patient safety while using the drugs. On the other hand, nurses play a significant role in the healthcare profession provision of care to the sick as well as the healthy while medicine is concerned with curing diseases that attack humans. Professionals in the three fields need to collaborate in order to ensure that risks are mitigated, and that patients are able to recover within a short period. The patient also needs to collaborate with the healthcare professionals so that good quality healthcare can be accomplished (Taylor et al. 2008). For example, nurses are mainly focused on the person and his capability to cope with disease. In the hospital setting, they ensure that the patient is put under favorable conditions that facilitate recovery. The patient is informed regarding the sitting or sleeping position, they are helped in feeding as well as maintaining hygiene in order to avoid hospital acquired infections. They ensure that the prescriptions by the doctor are taken correctly. This is an indication of a significant interaction between the doctor, nurse, pharmacist and the patient. All work in collaboration to accomplish recovery in the patient (Stone 2007). Research that is important in improving the health of the public also presents an avenue where the healthcare professionals interact to establish new ways of dealing with health issues. Nurses are important in helping the public in changing their lifestyles, education for maintaining personal cleanliness, information on nutrition, and other factors originating from the living environment. This is important in improving their capacity to avoid diseases. Doctors on the other hand are useful in offering treatment to the public in case of outbreaks, while pharmacists play an important in dispensing the medicine (Stone 2007). In order for the inter-professional practice to be successful, all the professionals involved need to be committed towards accomplishment of the desired collaboration. Taylor et al. (2008) observes that this can be achieved through constructive discussions regarding emerging issues. The professionals need to ensure that they foster strong working relationships in the healthcare environment so that the quality of patient care can be improved. The families of the patients and the community in general need to be involved in all the activities through a strong network between them and the healthcare professionals. Through such collaboration, ideas can be generated from shared thinking rather than competition. The patients are the core partners of such collaboration, as every other member focuses on facilitating the recovery. The major part of recovery takes place when the patient goes back to his/her community after the first stage in the recovery process when the patient is released from hospital. This means that the patient’s family is core to successful recovery. Care givers are also essential in ensuring that proper nutrition is adhered to when the patient is out of hospital. They are important in providing a report regarding the progress of the patient after being released from the care of nurses in the hospital (Jones & Creedy 2009). The government is significant to the success of any inter-professional practice in the healthcare profession. In many situations, it is in-charge of developing policies regarding education in healthcare. Inter-professional education is one of the key aspects of education that can be significant in enhancing inter-professional practice. In the educational institutions, it is important that each of the trainees understands the role of the other professions. This understanding is significant in ensuring that there is no duplication of roles, and that each of them understands whom to refer the patient to in case the problem is beyond his/her knowledge. The government needs to promote inter-professional education in these institutions by integrating it in the educational policies. It can help in generating a patient centered approach to healthcare provision (Jessup 2007). In other words, the healthcare professionals do not put in the fore front what they studied in school. Rather, they focus more on their ability to maintain good health in the patient, meaning that each professional contributes ideas and skills to accomplish a common goal. Inter-professional education and practice results in to inter-professional learning, whereby the healthcare system is viewed as a single unit, with various components, which must be present for healthcare objectives to be accomplished (Lee et al. 2009). On the other hand, the government needs to support community based care and education regarding matters of health. Provision of healthcare in hospitals usually costs the government a substantial amount of money, which could be used for other development purposes. Facilitating community health training is important in improving the capacity of the public to maintain healthy behaviors, especially to prevent the occurrence of lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, obesity, alcohol and smoking related diseases as well as sexually transmitted infections amongst others that may be prevented through a change in the lifestyle (Albert et al 2004). Government initiated collaboration between healthcare professionals, care givers and the community can be successful especially due to the fact that it has the required resources for engaging all of them in the improvement of the quality of care for the public (Jones & Creedy 2009). In Australia, the government, through the department of education supports inter-professional education and practice, which is significant in the accomplishment of the desired collaboration among healthcare professionals for improved healthcare services delivery. Such projects include; L-TIPP, Aus project, National Breast Cancer Center, Trauma Management and Interdisciplinary Emergency Maternity Education Program among others. There is also a National Health Workforce Taskforce that was established in 2006 under the COAG to enhance the response to the rising healthcare needs (Stone 2007). Various healthcare professionals and the community are engaged in the activities of these programs to accomplish the desired completeness in healthcare provision. Conclusion Inter-professional practice is significant in the improvement of healthcare provision. It is important in the promotion of teamwork, which is significant in maintaining a strong workforce that is characterized by sharing of knowledge and ideas. Inter-professional practice helps in the avoidance of duplication of roles since each professional understands the roles of the others. The patient is core to the inter-professional practice since the goal of all healthcare professionals is to help the patient acquire sustainable recovery. The government is core to the success of inter-professional practice, which is one of the factors that have contributed to the success of the inter-professional practice in Australia. Continuous promotion of inter-professional education will lead to a strong network of healthcare professionals, and a higher possibility of accomplishing healthcare objectives. References Albert, E., Dalton, L., Spencer, J., Dunn, M., & Walker, J. (2004). Doing it together: The tasmanian interdisciplinary rural placement program. Australian Journal of Rural Health, 12(1), 30-31 Jessup, R. (2007). Interdisciplinary versus multidisciplinary care teams: Do we understand the Difference? Australian Health Review, 31 (3), pp330-331. Jones, K. & Creedy, D. (2009). Foundations of Professional Practice: Interprofessional Practice in Health and Human Services HLT1IPB. Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pp. 30-48. Lee A., Dunston R., Nisbet G., Mathews L. and Pockett R. (2009). Interprofessional developments in Australia – L-TIPP (Aus) and the Way Forward. Journal of Interprofessional Care, Vol. 23(4), pp 315-317. Stone, N. (2007). Coming in from the interprofessional cold in Australia. Australian Health Review, 31 (3): 332-340. Taylor S., Foster M., & Fleming J., (2008). Health Care Practice in Australia: Policy, Context and Innovations, Melbourne: Oxford University Press, pp. 103-130 Read More