Essay On Interprofessional Practice For Nursing

Interprofessional practice can be explained as a collaboration of care provided by healthcare professionals and patients with their families and close members (Previato & Baldissera, 2018). This paper  focuses on challenges and conflicts which are involved in interprofessional practice after nursing placement. This paper is based on Gibbs reflective cycle. It refers to a cyclic model which is used to deduce reflections and it comprises of six stages, i) description; ii) feelings; iii) evaluation; iv) analysis; v) conclusion and vi) action plan (Adeani, Febrian & Syafryadin, 2020). This model offers a framework which includes examining the experiences with further describing experiences with feelings and thoughtsIn consequence, inter-professional collaboration considering social care and health seems to have challenge in every step and could be difficult (Heenan & Birrell, 2019). An episode during my work involving patient care during my placement is discussed below. This paper focuses on the importance of communication skills and interactions among colleagues as a non-technical skill in interprofessional practice.

 

 

I was appointed to a patient named Mrs V who was 68 years old and resident of home care. She was diagnosed with recurrent UTIs (urinary tract infections) and dehydration. UTIs (urinary tract infections) are caused by bacterial infections affecting bladder, and the kidneys (Wagenlehner et al., 2020). I was the concerned nurse to care and look after Mrs V and assist her with personal care. I followed the assessment and took observations as instructed by the doctor. Giving her medicines and maintaining her fluid intake was also my duty as prescribed. The consent by Mrs V was given to me for taking her care. I observed that she seems be appear confused at times hence I started monitoring her closely. The assessments which I was instructed to take were blood pressure, heart rate, temperature, saturation rate and AVPUC (alert, voice, pain, unconscious and confusion). All the observations taken was normal when evaluated only her body temperature was little increased and was monitored to be 38.8. I gave her paracetamol to be orally taken as prescribed under the supervision of my senior. Mrs V was seen to be confused while communicating her needs. I wanted to inform these evaluations made by me to my senior that she was not intaking enough liquid. I informed the nutritionist of my institution and was advised to give her supplemented shakes which will taste better and would be taken by her.

 

 

My purpose was to ensure that Mrs V is improving and comfortable. Although I sometimes realise the helplessness of her when I saw her lying in bed and tried to give her positive motivation and atmosphere. I have seen Mrs V frustrated and irritated whenever she was trying to communicate about her needs instructing me which made be worried. Additionally, there were times when I had to do lot of work which would make me busy and I was unable to interact with other professionals of healthcare for support. This left me with own frustration. As stated by (Sanko, et al., 2020). Inter-professional working tends an individuals to have communication with other healthcare professionals and caregiver of patients which enables comprehensive approach towards patient care.

 

 

I established that Mrs V with home care may put her at risk due to lack of appropriate  personal hygiene which could be the cause of recurrent UTIs. In elderly patient UTIs leads to a symptom of confusion and difficulty in communication leading to poor health. In UTIs intake of plenty of fluids is essential to recover from infection. Fever is one of the symptoms of UTIs which can be prevented by keeping the body hydrated (Cortes-Penfield, Trautner & Jump 2017). I noted in  the document of all outputs which was monitoring her progress and fluid input taken by her. The suggestions of my seniors helped me to evaluate the things which helped me go through this situation.  After a few shifts with my patient, I found her health was improving and treatment was working. I reflected that my support and advices from other professionals helped Mrs v to manage her illness and got her recovered.

 

 

After this case I have gained knowledge about UTIs and its symptoms which includes agitation and confusion in elderly patients. Other symptoms include pain in lower part of abdomen, tiredness, frequent urination, fever and smelly urine (Cortes-Penfield, Trautner & Jump 2017).  I also found that being connected and discussing the problems with other nurses was of great help. With this experience I got familiar with idea to accomplish standards of competencies in nursing profession. Moreover, the comprehensive approach towards nursing requires collaborative work among nurses and other health professional with caregivers of patients (Homeyer et al., 2018). I have concluded that how important is interprofessional working in nursing field.

 

 

I believe that with the above experience with patient managing the UTI and providing care has increased my knowledge. I felt happy because of the work and care provided my me which resulted in recovery in patient’s condition. Initially I was finding it difficult but eventually I felt confident about it. the support I got from my colleagues and seniors helped me gaining knowledge and developing skills to deal with such situations. I was been guided throughout the work experience which helped me deal with the situation which will help me in handling cases in the future. Maintaining and communicating efficiently among the professionals enhances the training (Dempsey et.al., 2018). I will continue to learn new skills to help me get better in working field.

 

 

I have aimed to look for other new strategies for improving my interpersonal working skills and communication skills. I will always go for taking advices from my seniors and learning to handle challenging situations. These will help me in training and further in building my professional career. I will enrol in workshops and go to volunteer in the health camps which will help me to gain practical experience and meet more professional people sharing their skills and getting to learn new things. These will help me to familiarize with more cases and have diversity in my knowledge.

 

 

Adeani, I. S., Febriani, R. B., & Syafryadin, S. (2020). USING GIBBS’REFLECTIVE CYCLE IN MAKING REFLECTIONS OF LITERARY ANALYSIS. Indonesian EFL Journal, 6(2), 139-148. https://journal.uniku.ac.id/index.php/IEFLJ/article/view/3382

 

 

Cortes-Penfield, N. W., Trautner, B. W., & Jump, R. L. (2017). Urinary tract infection and asymptomatic bacteriuria in older adults. Infectious Disease Clinics, 31(4), 673-688. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.idc.2017.07.002

 

 

Dempsey, A. F., Pyrznawoski, J., Lockhart, S., Barnard, J., Campagna, E. J., Garrett, K., ... & O’Leary, S. T. (2018). Effect of a health care professional communication training intervention on adolescent human papillomavirus vaccination: a cluster randomized clinical trial. JAMA pediatrics, 172(5), e180016-e180016. https://doi:10.1001/jamapediatrics.2018.0016

 

 

Heenan, D., & Birrell, D. (2019). Hospital-based social work: Challenges at the interface between health and social care. The British Journal of Social Work, 49(7), 1741-1758. https://doi.org/10.1093/bjsw/bcy114

 

 

Homeyer, S., Hoffmann, W., Hingst, P., Oppermann, R. F., & Dreier-Wolfgramm, A. (2018). Effects of interprofessional education for medical and nursing students: enablers, barriers and expectations for optimizing future interprofessional collaboration–a qualitative study. BMC nursing, 17(1), 1-10. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12912-018-0279-x

 

 

Previato, G. F., & Baldissera, V. D. A. (2018). Communication in the dialogical perspective of collaborative interprofessional practice in Primary Health Care. Interface-Comunicação, Saúde, Educação, 22, 1535-1547. https://doi.org/10.1590/1807-57622017.0647

 

 

Sanko, J., Mckay, M., Shekhter, I., Motola, I., & Birnbach, D. J. (2020). What participants learn, with, from and about each other during inter-professional education encounters: A qualitative analysis. Nurse Education Today, 88, 104386. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nedt.2020.104386

 

 

Wagenlehner, F. M., Bjerklund Johansen, T. E., Cai, T., Koves, B., Kranz, J., Pilatz, A., & Tandogdu, Z. (2020). Epidemiology, definition and treatment of complicated urinary tract infections. Nature Reviews Urology, 17(10), 586-600. https://www.nature.com/articles/s41585-020-0362-4