Interprofessional teamwork: Nursing

Nurse Dara works in the surgical step-down unit where she has been assigned to care for Ms. Hart who experienced abdominal wound dehiscence 4 days ago after surgery for hernia repair, and is scheduled to be discharged today. Ms. Hart reports that she has trouble getting out of bed by herself and she tells Nurse Dara, “I’m really nervous about having to care for this wound at home.” Nurse Dara will work as part of the interprofessional healthcare team to assure that all Ms. Hart’s needs are met prior to her discharge.

Now, interprofessional teams are groups of healthcare professionals working together to provide effective, client-centered care. This could include everyone from doctors and nurses, to pharmacists and therapists, dieticians, psychologists, technologists and technicians, to social workers and care managers. The members of the team will depend on the specific needs of the client.

Interprofessional teams require interprofessional collaboration so the team can work together to create and carry out a healthcare plan that treats the client as a whole person. This will help prevent communication breakdown,reduce errors, improve efficiency of care delivery, and cut down healthcare costs.

Okay, there are 4 core competencies for effective interprofessional teamwork. First, there are values and ethics for interprofessional practice, which means that team members should appreciate each team member’s contribution to the team in order to create shared values, such as a commitment to patient-centeredness, as well as safer, more effective care.

Next are roles and responsibilities for collaborative practice, which means that team members should understand their own role and the roles of others so everyone can best apply their skills to meet the needs of the client. Then, there’s interprofessional communication, which emphasizes the need for open and effective communication between team members and with the client. And finally, team-based practice competencies focus on using shared decision-making to build consensus within the team, while working towards a common goal.

When working as part of an interprofessional team, your role as a nurse will involve interacting with both the client and other team members. First, since nurses spend the most time with the client, they are in the perfect position to update the team on the client’s condition and report important information to other members, like informing the pharmacist when there’s an adverse effect from a new medication, or reporting a significant change in vital signs to the physician during treatment. Next, the nurse can act as the coordinator of the interprofessional team. This can facilitate communication among other team members, like when a physical therapist informs the nurse that the client needs orthotic shoes, and the nurse relays that information to the physician to write the prescription.

The nurse can also coordinate care by reviewing the treatment plan and making sure the team members are following it consistently and continuously. For example, they can check to make sure that the dietician is updating the client’s nutritional needs based on the treatment plan. Finally the nurse can advocate on behalf of the client to other team members, like if the client is worried about paying for medication, the nurse can bring up the issue with the social worker on the team.