The importance of effective care management practices in the nursing - Essay Example

? TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE NO Introduction …………………………………………………………………….. 2 II. Effective Care Management Practices............................. 2 III. The Need for Collaboration and Teamwork………….. 4 IV. Effective Team Working in Nursing Practices…………. 6 V. Care Management Episode and need for Effective Team 9 VI. Conclusion…………………………………….. ………….. 12 VII. References………………………………………………… 13 I. Introduction Team collaboration and team performance have been viewed as two of the most important concepts in nursing practices. Effecting team work and collaboration between nurses and doctors, between doctors and patients, between nurses and patients and among nurses are essential to provide larger satisfaction to the patients. It is also necessary to deliver greater reliable nursing services. Effective care management is essential for the betterment of nursing management and also for the betterment of the overall society. A patient gets satisfied if the nurse delivers him an effecting and caring service and also the disease of the patient gets cured with ease. Nurses are required to implement effective care management practices with the help of team work and collaboration with others (doctors and patients). This paper is aimed at describing the importance of effective care management practices in the nursing. This paper has also tried to enumerate the importance of team work and collaborations of nurses in successful implementation of effective care management practices in nursing practices. II.Effective care management practices: Nursing can be described as a service profession where nurses play two basic roles: care provider and care manager. As a care provider the main role of a nurse is to provide greater care to her patients who are suffering from diseases or health-related problems. As a care manager the main role of a nurse is to provide her patient a comfortable environment and practices to get rid of all the pains and sufferings. Effective care management is an essential requirement for the purpose of providing effective nursing services to patients. The notion of care management is particularly important for nurses because they are the most important care provider to the patients. It is also because they are the care manager of the most important service sector in society, the health care sector. Among all care management practices the nursing care management is the most important care management practice in health care sector of society. Care management practices have been recognised not as professions which require professional status; rather care management has been identified as one of the most important practices in service sectors of the society (Cress, 2010, p.400). Care management is described not as a necessity for the purpose of improving health conditions of a person, but it is looked as a critical strategy element of health plans of the society. Effective management of care and chronic health conditions are absolute necessities in modern society; not only from society’s point-of-view, but also from economic point-of-view. From society’s perspective greater health care management leads to greater effective and improves health conditions of the society. From the perspective of economics, effective health care management means greater savings in terms of human resource through effective health conditions of societies (Berger, 1999, p.199). The notion of care management can be used as one of the most important concepts in health care sector, nursing management. Nursing management can be described as a process where nursing resources are coordinated and integrated to deliver an organised high-client care to different individuals and groups or communities. This nursing management requires collaborations and team works among different agents who are involved in the heal care service sector of the society (Nagelkerk, 2006, pp.9-10). The notion of care management is an important concept to nurses because nurses are largely involved in coordinating and delivering various health services to patients. According to Nagelkerk (2006), “nursing management is the coordination and integration of nursing resources to accomplish care provision through application of the management process”. This is the most important aspect of importance of collaboration and team performance in nursing (Nagelkerk, 2006, p.12). II.The need for collaboration and team work: Collaboration and team work can be seen as most important concepts in health care management practices. Collaboration and team performance can be described, in general, as a process where people coordinate or collaborate to achieve a coordinated goal through different actions. These actions involve greater interchange of thoughts, opinions, views, ideas and informations. But in health care management practices, collaboration can be described as applications of complementary roles and coordinating working practices by health care professionals. This is also related to practices of sharing responsibilities in the context of problem-solving and decision-making actions related to health care management for the purpose of executing plans and actions aimed at greater care for patients. It has been argued that ‘collaboration between physicians, nurses, and other health care professionals increases team members’ awareness of each others’ type of knowledge and skills, leading to continued improvement in decision-making’ (O’Daniel and Rosenstein, n.d., p.2). In health care management practices effective collaborations create effective teams. These teams are characterised as trust and respect for each other and are consistent with effective collaboration among the members of these teams. According to O’Daniel and Rosenstein (n.d.), “unlike a multidisciplinary approach, in which each team member is responsible only for the activities related to his or her own discipline and formulates separate goals for the patient, an interdisciplinary approach coalesces a joint effort on behalf of the patient with a common goal from all disciplines involved in the care plan”. Integrated actions in the care management are necessarily important because these actions help both the healthcare professionals as well as patients to understand and execute effective healthcare services (Cohen and Cesta, 2005, pp.83-84). Patients find that the communication with different healthcare professionals become easier when those professionals are integrated or collaborated to perform and execute actions in favour of the betterment of health of these patients, compared to situations when these professional act in isolation and independently. This isolated situation is also difficult for professionals because in this case those professionals face problems to provide efficient healthcare services as one professional agent (doctor or nurse) do not know what other professionals are doing. And these integrated actions are highly necessary for nurses because they are the most important healthcare providers in the entire healthcare service sector. Successful teamwork and collaboration includes many aspects, such as open communication among the team members, existence of Non-punitive environment within the team. This also includes the existence of ‘clear and known roles and tasks for team members’, prevalence of respectful environment within and outside the team, ability and willingness of each and every team member to share responsibilities in team’s successes as well as in team’s failures, existence of ‘clear specifications regarding authority and accountability’ and clear and known decision-making processes. Many other aspects are also included into it like willingness of each and every member to share information and resources to other members of the team and most importantly ability of the entire team to implement necessary mechanisms and policies in regard to observed outcomes of previous policies and action plans and to adjust roles and responsibilities of the entire team accordingly (O’Daniel and Rosenstein, n.d., pp.2-3). Nursing practices also requires these effective integrations and communications among all healthcare professionals. But according to O’Daniel and Rosenstein (n.d.), “many health care workers are used to poor communication and teamwork, as a result of a culture of low expectations that has developed in many health care settings. This culture, in which health care workers have come to expect faulty and incomplete exchange of information, leads to errors because even conscientious professionals tend to ignore potential red flags and clinical discrepancies. They view these warning signals as indicators of routine repetitions of poor communication rather than unusual, worrisome indicators”. Various researchers have argued that because medical profession is a complex and highly coordinate profession, therefore the need for effective team management and team performance is the most in this profession. Effective team management and team performance is needed to execute and implement effective medical practices with accuracy (Lim, 2008, p.43). In this context, structured communication techniques play an important role in developing the performance of teams and also help teams to achieve greater accuracy in healthcare management practices. Effective team performance and collaborations help team members to make decisions and also implement actions in regard to healthcare management practices. It is found that qualified nursing members having different degrees of skills and expertise often collaborate together to form a team of professionals. The members of the team do not always possess the same skill set; they may differ from each other in terms of their nursing knowledge, degrees of qualification and experience. It is difficult to recruit General Physicians (GP) for providing patient care at every step. In the absence of GPs, the hospitals depend on the varied skill mix of the nursing team to provide primary care to the patients. (O’Daniel and Rosenstein, n.d., pp.5-6). IV.Effective Team Working in Nursing Practices: Effective team working and collaboration is highly necessary in nursing practices and mainly in the healthcare management practices. As nursing is the most important healthcare management practice, therefore the importance of effective team working and collaboration is a must in nursing practices (Roussel, 2006, p.120). It has been argued that effective team building and existence of collaboration helps to build up positive environments for healthcare practices and thus leads to better and effective healthcare management practices by the nurses. These effective positive practice environments lead to excellence in support and decent work. These environments are necessary to ensure effective health and safety in the healthcare management practices and also in personal and professional well-being for patients and staffs. These positive environments also lead to more support and care for the patients, improvements in ‘motivation, productivity and performance of individuals and organisations’. There are various characteristics of positive healthcare practice environments which are: occupational healthcare practices, wellness and safety policies which help to avoid hazards at workplace, discrimination against poor and weak group of patients, psychological violence and matters related to personal security; manageable, effective and fair workloads and job stresses. These positive environments also include ‘Organisational climate reflective of effective management and leadership practices, good peer support, worker participation in decision-making, shared values’. These positive environments further includes balance in healthy work-life; existence of equitable opportunities and treatments for patients; existence of career development and professional development opportunities; existence of professional identity and autonomous and controlled practices; existence of job security and existence of decent payments and effective benefits. These conditions help to some great extent to deliver significant and effective nursing services to patients. Effective tea, work helps to great extent to create these environments which are most necessary to provide effective healthcare services to patients (Kirst-Ashman and Hall, 2011, p.100). There are several other benefits which are acquired by these practicing these positive environmental practices which are: existence of positive environments in healthcare management helps to generate better teamwork and collaboration among nurses and other healthcare providers and to create an increased continuous and effective system of patient care which finally creates ‘improvements in patient outcomes’. These benefits also include greater satisfaction of nurses in terms of better work culture and effective working environments help to create better environments for them to work in effective teams and greater collaborations with others; existence of effective leadership and team buildings help nurses to put significant efforts in terms of providing efficient healthcare services to patients and thus lead to better patient outcomes. These benefits further includes the existence of effective team and collaboration among the members of the team of healthcare service providers that help nurses to feel that they are the respected part of the entire healthcare management system and hence augmented the working abilities of these nurses and also augment the willingness of them to provide greater and effective healthcare service to patients (Lipe and Beasley, 2003, p.150). Various researchers have found that effective team working and existence of effective leadership helps nurses to put larger efforts in terms of efficient healthcare management if they are given assistance in terms of professional identity and fair compensations. These conditions help nurses to gather greater working confidence and willingness to provide greater and efficient healthcare management services to the patients. Existence of effective team helps nurses to improve their quality of working and also the quality of providing healthcare services (Developing and Sustaining Effective Teams: Getting Started: An introduction and Overview, n.d., p.53). And the existence of positive environments augments the ability of nurses to work as a team with greater collaboration among the members of the team and hence to provide greater assistance in developing effective healthcare management system in the healthcare industry (Positive Practice Environments, 2007, pp.2-6). Effective teams are not only found by joining lots of people in a group. Rather for a team to be effective all the members of that team needs to work in collaborated or coordinated ways. This coordination or collaboration helps nurses to provide significant healthcare services. In the healthcare services nurses are required to work with several teams, such as nursing team, administration team, health management team, therapist team, ward-based multidisciplinary team, social service team and local authority. These teams are required to have internal as well as external collaborations in order to deliver effective healthcare services to patients (Blais, 2007, p.218). Nurses are not only required to have effective coordination with other nurses, but also with doctors, therapists, ward-members and other healthcare management services providers. In medical services this internal and external coordination is highly needed to achieve effective patient outcomes. Collaboration is a necessity in nursing services (Hitchcock, 2003, p.463). Collaboration is essential to practice an effective healthcare service. Since nursing is an important healthcare service, therefore the need for collaboration is really high for nurses. Nurses are required to collaborate with doctors and with other healthcare service providers to give their 100% efforts for the betterment of patients’ health conditions and hence for the betterment of the entire society. Motivation is another important factor determining the performance of a team of qualified medical professionals. When a group of nurses collaborate to form a medical team, it creates a group of professionals with varying degrees of educational degrees and experience in nursing care. However, the less qualified or the less experienced nurses should not feel out of place in front of their senior colleagues. It is important for everybody to remember that all of them belong to a single unified team whose primary objective is to deliver effective medical care to patients. In other words, it is vital for nurses to keep alive their individual motivation and continue to be engaged in this noble profession (Sines, 2009, p.141). V.Care management episode and need for effective team In every care management episodes presence of effective team and collaboration is highly essential. In the context of a care management episode the need for the effective team and collaboration can be seen. A care management episode can be defined as ‘the set of services required to manage a specific medical condition of a patient over a defined period of time’ (Rattray, n.d., p.2). For example, in the case of preventing the disease like pneumonia, effective nursing services are needed for a longer time period and to cure the patient and hence to provide him better health conditions (Lundy and Janes, 2001, p.931). Pneumonia is a seditious condition of lung which specifically affects the microscopic air sacs, also known as alveoli, and is associated with high fever, symptoms which affect chest and air space conditions of chest. The main cause for pneumonia is infection, but there are many other reasons which cause the disease, such as different viruses, bacteria, fungus and parasites. In case of Pneumonia the patient needs great care and nursing and in this case the need for effective team building and collaboration is must. The cure of pneumonia includes complete rest and oral antibiotics, but if the health condition of the patient deteriorates without proper care and nursing then the patient needs to be hospitalised. In the later case the need for nurses and effective healthcare team becomes necessary. Almost 14% cases have been found where the patients are hospitalised due to weak health conditions being suffered from pneumonia. In this case the need or effective and coordinated team of healthcare professionals is needed to some great extent (Hess, 2011, p.793). Nurses are required to take care of the patient, to give the patient medicines, which are prescribed by the doctor, at proper times, to measure body temperature at regular intervals, to report the concerned doctor about the condition of health of the patient. They are also required to take inform the concerned doctor when it is needed (in case of emergency situations, such as if the patient falls more seek even in the presence of proper nursing due to some medical reasons like the unsuitability of the medicine(s) prescribed by the doctor) and to inform family members of the patient regarding upto date conditions of patient’s health. In this entire process of nursing and care, nurses are required to communicate with doctors, medicine providers (in most of the times family members provide medicines, but sometimes medicines are provided by the hospitals where the patient is getting treatment), family members of the patient and many other healthcare providers. But the most important collaboration is required to be made with the doctors (Complete Healthcare Analytics for Episode of Care, n.d., p.9). Nurses are required to listen to the instructions which are provided by the doctors in order to provide the patient the best possible treatment for pneumonia. These nurses are required follow instructions regarding when and what medicine to be given to the patient and what would be reporting time to the doctor regarding the health condition of the patient. In this regard the team of doctor and nurse in very much crucial for the betterment of health condition of the patient. There is a two way relationship between the doctor and the nurse. On one hand the doctor is required to give proper, effective and valuable instructions to the nurse and on the other hand the nurse if required to follow those instructions very carefully. This team of doctor and nurse is the most effective team in favour of acquiring positive patient outcomes (Freshman, 2010, p.6). Again the nurse is also needed to be teamed up with other nurse(s). This is because if the patient suffers from critical situation of pneumonia which will require a long-time treatment, then the all the nurses will be required to share the duty of providing nursing services among themselves. This is because one particular nurse cannot work for longer time periods. Also in this context one nurse needs to have the collaboration with other nurses in regard to critical situations when in the absence of the particular nurse (in case of serious emergency of the nurse) other nurse(s) is(are) capable of managing the situation by providing healthcare services to the patient suffering from pneumonia. Again collaboration is also needed among the nurses and medicine providers (Hoeman, 2008, p.25). This collaboration will help the patient to get well soon from pneumonia, if there is an effective collaboration between nurses and medicine providers. Also the need for effective collaboration between the nurses and family members of the patient is also necessary (Finkleman, 2008, p.97). In this context the need for multi-disciplinary and multi-professionally collaboration is needed. This collaboration is required to be set up between the nurses and doctors, among the nurses, between the nurses and other healthcare providers and lastly between the nurses and family members of the patient who is suffering from pneumonia (Claus, 1997, pp.92-101). This is also called the multi-agency collaboration because several agents who are involved in the healthcare management services are required to collaborate and coordinate among themselves in order to provide the patient an effective and significant service to cure the disease called pneumonia (Fein, 2006, p.20). These collaborations are team works are needed to be maintained by registered nurses and these nurses are not needed expected to breach confidentiality related to treatment of a patient suffering from pneumonia or from any other disease and health problems (Rello, 2010, pp.55-56). The Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) are usually delegated with a number of nursing-related tasks which it can accomplish with the help of its qualified nurses. Some of these tasks include sterilizing instruments, checking blood pressure of patients, conducting regular health checkups of patients, assisting in minor surgery, and so on. The registered nurses in turn remain answerable for the suitable delegation of these tasks to their respective teams. VI.Conclusion: The need for an effective team and collaboration is essential in nursing services and other healthcare management practices in order to provide greater and successful healthcare services to the society. Nurses are most important provider of healthcare services, mainly care services, and in this context effective collaboration with nurses and other healthcare providers will make nurses more effective and efficient in the healthcare service industry (Chism, 2010, p.89). In the context of greater health related problems in the modern world, nurses are required to collaborate in teams to prevent those healthcare problems and diseases and hence to create beautiful world without chronic diseases and lack of care for patients suffering from those diseases. VII.References: 1. Berger, K. J. (1999), Fundamentals of nursing: collaborating for optimal health, UK: Appleton & Lange 2. Blais, A. (2007), Professional Nursing Practice: Concept And Perspectives, USA: Pearson 3. Complete Healthcare Analytics for Episode of Care, (n.d.), Project Performance Corporation, available at: http://www.ppc.com/documents/PPCs_Episode_360_Solution_White_Paper.pdf (accessed on January 23, 2012) 4. Cress, C. 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