Assignment Instructions
Explain how interprofessional collaboration will help reduce errors, provide higher-quality care, and increase safety. Provide an example of a current or emerging trend that will require more, or change the nature of, interprofessional collaboration.
Sample Answer
Explain how interprofessional collaboration will help reduce errors, provide higher-quality care, and increase safety.
Interprofessional collaboration reduces medical errors, provides high-quality care, and increases safety in care through excellent communication skills. Effective communication enables different healthcare providers from different disciplines to communicate in a responsible and responsive manner. Communication in the interprofessional environment is demonstrated through verbal and non-verbal communication through debating, discussing, interacting, consulting, and negotiating (McLaughlin et al., 2020). Interprofessional collaboration enhances care provision by incorporating transparency and full disclosure among families, clients, and patients. This will be crucial in the provision of patient-centered care that adheres to the patient's preferences, values, and needs. Involvement of the patients and the families in care provision is fostered through interprofessional collaboration and this creates a shared care plan.
Provide an example of a current or emerging trend that will require more, or change the nature of, interprofessional collaboration.
One emerging trend that will change the future of interprofessional collaboration is telehealth. Telehealth enables healthcare providers to attend to patients without in-patient visits and it is done online using smartphones, tablets, and computers. The technology enables healthcare providers to speak over video chat or phone, send and receive messages, and use remote monitoring to evaluate patients. In recent years, telehealth has grown in terms of scope and use due to enhanced internet access and mobile devices (Ransdell et al., 2021). The technology derives positive and safe patient outcomes as it enables healthcare providers to monitor the health of the patients. Over time, there has been a lack of training on the use of telehealth technology, and up to now, healthcare providers have learned to use the technology while on the job. Success of the telehealth technology largely depends on the competence of clients and clinicians, collaboration and communication between patients and healthcare providers as well as collaboration between healthcare providers in different regions. Eventually, telehealth benefits healthcare providers and clients by reducing healthcare gaps and enhancing convenience and access to unavailable healthcare services (Ransdell et al., 2021).
References
McLaughlin, J. E., Bush, A. A., Rodgers, P. T., Scott, M. A., Zomorodi, M., & Roth, M. T. (2020). Characteristics of high-performing interprofessional health care teams involving student pharmacists. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 84(1). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7055411/
Ransdell, L. B., Greenberg, M. E., Isaki, E., Lee, A., Bettger, J. P., Hung, G., ... & Cason, J. (2021). Best practices for building interprofessional telehealth: Report of a conference. International journal of telerehabilitation, 13(2). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9098135/