Interdisciplinary Relationships - Assignment Example

Interdisciplinary Relationships Introduction The healthcare practice is a practice which hinges very much on collaboration. It is a practice made up of various health care professionals with individual roles, and these roles require a collaborative execution in order to ensure safe and positive patient outcomes. In working with each other as a team, the strengths of each discipline are needed in order to focus on the care of the patient and to fill in the weaknesses of other members of the health care team. Implementing effective interdisciplinary relationships help to decrease costs and to improve patient satisfaction, thereby improving overall health care worker satisfaction. This paper shall present the interdisciplinary relationships as seen in the emergency room which the marketing department now needs to collaborate with the development department. It shall include a discussion on how conflicts are avoided and resolved; it shall present how they work with each other as a team and how they collaborate with other departments, and how such collaboration can be improved. This paper shall describe how interdisciplinary relationships affect our organization, the patients and families that use our health care organization. This paper is being undertaken in the hope of coming up with a clear understanding and evaluation of the interdisciplinary team process in order to improve patient outcomes in the emergency room. Discussion The emergency room (ER) team is a group of health care workers who manage incidents or cases of patients which need immediate medical attention. This team consists of doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, and in some cases, social workers. This interdisciplinary team works and collaborates with each other in order to deliver quality, immediate, and safe medical services to the patient. The emergency room doctor has emergency medicine training and is required to make quick and life-saving decisions for the patient. ER doctors examine the patients and decide on the treatments for each patient. They order medical tests for patients in order to assist them in their diagnosis. And they often perform emergency minor surgeries in order to close up wounds or remove superficial foreign body obstructions (Roberts, 2005). Doctors in the ER also have different areas of expertise. Some specialize in internal medicine, surgery, pediatrics, orthopedics, anesthesiology, obstetrics, and even mental health. These doctors all work with each other and with the other health care professionals in order to ensure improved patient outcomes. Nurses are also important members of the emergency department team. They primarily assist doctors in the minor surgeries; in monitoring vital signs; carrying out orders; administering medications; carrying out physical assessment of patients; taking patient history; and providing emotional support for the patients (Kalman, 2005). They are called on to carry out these duties based on quick and discerning judgment calls with the help of the other members of the emergency team. The laboratory technicians are there to extract and perform laboratory tests on patients quickly and efficiently (Roberts, 2005). More often than not they are also called on to deliver results of these tests as quickly as possible in order to help ensure that immediate medical decisions can be made by the doctors based on informed choices. The respiratory therapists are there to assist in the oxygenation of the patients. Since some patients brought in to the ERs are oxygen deprived or have respiratory failure, the respiratory therapists are there to assist in reviving the patient or in ensuring that the patient gets enough oxygen supply (Roberts, 2005). In some instances, a social worker is made part of the ER team. They are there to help render emotional support to the patient and to their families – to help them cope with the emergency and to ensure that the patient’s (and his family’s) mental state is kept in a balance (Roberts, 2005). When a patient comes into our emergency room, the ER team immediately assesses the situation of the patient. The doctor assesses how life-threatening a patient’s condition may be and what immediate medical attention the patient needs; the nurse carries out the orders and delivers nursing care to the patient; the lab techs take blood and other laboratory specimens from the patient for testing; the respiratory therapist assesses the patient for oxygen deprivation and then makes a recommendation for possible oxygen therapy; and the social worker counsel the patient and his family. These members of the team have to communicate and coordinate quickly and efficiently with each other in order to ensure that the patient’s condition does not deteriorate. In order to avoid and resolve conflicts, we all recognize and respect each other’s responsibility and expertise in the team. We also communicate well with each other. In order to ensure effective communication and collaboration with each other, we avoid making assumptions about what and how others would decide on a given situation (Gohsman, 2009). We also try to maintain a positive attitude as members of the team. We go through grueling hours in the ER and by keeping a positive energy we can concentrate more on our duties and consequently, avoid fatigue and burnout. In order to prevent any conflicts, we also actively listen to what the other members of the team have to say. We pay attention to what they are saying and consider their opinions and expertise as part of the process of making medical decisions. We also try our best to be open-minded in order to resolve conflicts (Gohsman, 2009). We give each other a chance to explain our opinions and knowledge and expertise regarding the medical situations we encounter in the emergency rooms. Once we express our opinions, even if other people’s opinions do not seem to agree with ours, we always consider them for deliberation within the group. By applying these qualities and principles, we often are able to resolve conflicts without creating tension and quarrels between the members of the health care team. Moreover, as an interdisciplinary team, we always try to resolve conflicts through collaboration. Collaboration is when each member of the team cooperates with the other party until the problem is resolved to the team’s satisfaction. This is often a win-win way of resolving conflicts (Gohsman, 2009). We apply this process and these principles in our dealings with other departments in the hospital. We had several occasions when we had to collaborate with the operating room team. One time, a 68 year old woman was admitted for a hip fracture. All operating rooms at that time were being used because of a road pile-up. We had to collaborate with the OR team in order to ensure that all the emergency procedures would be prioritized, including our elderly patient. The OR team understood that since our patient was a high risk patient because of her history of hypertension and stroke, they had to try to work around their schedule to accommodate our request and in the process ensure that all patients received adequate care. The interdisciplinary relationships affect our organization in the sense that these relationships help make the organization more effective. Through collaboration, the healthcare professionals can concentrate more on their tasks and responsibilities – not on their job titles. Interdisciplinary relationships help save time and effort in the tasks and responsibilities which have to be carried out. Each member of the health care team already knows what he is supposed to do and rest easier in knowing that other tasks in the process of caring for a patient would be efficiently carried out by the other members of the healthcare team. Interdisciplinary relationships help ensure that misunderstandings in the organization are avoided or easily resolved (Lindeke & Siekert, 2005). Misunderstandings in the organization can often cripple the efficient working processes in any organization. Through interdisciplinary relationships, our organization is often able to clear up misunderstandings before they become worse. Interdisciplinary relationships affect our patients and their families in the sense that they can rely on the efficient processes in the organization. They have more trust in the organization and in the members of the health care team. The patients are also more inclined to be more open in the decisions we make for their health benefit. The families are also more cooperative in the health advice given to them in the course of their care. Conclusion In the emergency room, the different health care members who collaborate with each other are the: doctors, nurses, laboratory technicians, respiratory therapist, and social worker. Each member of the team has his responsibility and collaborates with the other members of the team in order to deliver efficient health care services to the patient. In order to avoid conflicts in our organization we attempt to establish efficient communication skills with each other. In the process, we are able to avoid tension and misunderstandings in the organization. Through such efficient practices, we are able to enhance the trust and openness of the patients and their families in our abilities as an organization and as a health care team. Works Cited Gohsman, R. (2009) Medical Assisting Made Incredibly Easy: Law and Ethics. Philadelphia: Lippincott Williams & Wilkins Kalman, B. (2005) Hospital Workers in the Emergency Room. New York: Crabtree Publishing Company Lindeke, L. & Siekert, A. (2005) Nurse-Physician Workplace Collaboration: Nature and Benefits of Collaboration. Medscape Today. Retrieved 17 July 2010 from http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/499268_2 Roberts, A. (2005) Crisis intervention handbook: assessment, treatment, and research. New York: Oxford University Press Read More