Communication in Healthcare Teams
Complementary Roles, Decision Making and Shared Responsibility
Effective communication is necessary to be incorporated in the healthcare teams in order to ensure the enhanced wellbeing of patients by means of developing and implementing the patient care plans in an effective manner. The effective implementation of the care plans is based on the shared responsibility of the healthcare teams or multidisciplinary teams, in which the individual members of these teams are responsible to provide care to the patients. The patients in the intensive care units or long-term residential facilities require services from the individuals of different departments and team members, mainly comprising of assigned nurse, nurse supervisor, physiologist, consultant physician and pharmacist. However, interdepartmental support and integration is also required to support the functions of individual team members (Gausvik et al., 2015).
The care plan addresses all these members to play their role in providing the required level of care to the patients and this responsibility is delegated to these individuals on the basis of the decisions that incorporate the healthcare interventions. The continuous care requires the effective collaboration among the individuals in order to ensure that the team members are not oriented towards their individual goals but are focused on enhancing the patient outcome. In this manner, the tasks and responsibilities in the care plans are not neglected by the members and this situation takes place when effective communication prevails in order to enlighten the team members about the healthcare objective of the patient and their contribution to enhance the healthcare standards (Gausvik et al., 2015).
Collaborative Implementation of Nursing Plans and Individual Care Plans
The patient care plans are not developed in isolation, and they are developed in accordance with the consultant physician’s suggestions and prescriptions. The nursing staff is responsible for the development of the effective interventions to enhance the recovery rate of the patients and ensure their comfort while administering the prescriptions and monitoring the patient as suggested by the physicians. The care plan is focused on the patient outcome and the elements of care plans are distributed among the nursing staff in order to ensure their effective implementation. The delegation of these tasks is considered as the individual implementation of the care plan, in which every individual plays their part to provide the required level of care to the patient (Gausvik et al., 2015).
The process of delegation can take place only when the care plans are implemented in a collaborative manner. It is required that all the team members understand the condition and concerns of the patient. It is also essential that the healthcare outcome of the patient is being understood by the team members and they understand the significance of implementing the preventive measures and intervention. This extent of knowledge can only be ensured if effective communication prevails among the healthcare teams (Gausvik et al., 2015).
Collective Goals, Individual Goals and Effective Implication
Registered nurses understand the significance of implementing the care plans and addressing their tasks and duties in an effective manner. This extent of care take place when these nurses understand their role in addressing the concerns of the patients, enhancing the extent of patients’ comfort and effectively administering the interventions. This effective implication of the care plans can only take place when registered nurses understand their individual goals by means of understanding that these goals are part of the collective goals of the team that addresses the healthcare standard in the facility or hospital as a whole. This extent of understanding and goal integration can only be achieved when an adequate level of communication among the team members prevail (Gausvik et al., 2015).
Team Members’ Job Satisfaction and Enhanced Clinical Outcomes
The adequate implementation of the care plans ensures that the patient outcomes are achieved which eventually increases the clinical outcomes. The enhanced recovery rate and quality of care increases the clinical outcomes in which the organizational objectives of the healthcare are achieved. It is a universal fact that when employees are satisfied at their jobs then then tend to address their work related responsibilities in an effective manner, which eventually increases the extent of goal achievement. In this manner, it is implied that when nursing staff is highly satisfied at their workplace then they tend to utilize their potential in order to contribute to the achievement of clinical objectives (Mayor et al., 2013).
The job satisfaction is achieved when the team members believe that they are supported by their peers and supervisors. The team members need to believe that their contribution is essential for the success of the organization and team objectives. The employees or nurses work better when conflicts between the members and authority do not prevail and role clarity exists which clearly states the extent of performance and tasks that are required to be incorporated by these individuals. Similarly, ambiguity in delegation, work objectives, patient objectives and job tasks reduces the morale of the individuals due to which they become less inclined towards accomplishing their work related responsibilities (Gausvik et al., 2015).
In this manner, it is inferred that when employees are satisfied at their work place, then they meet the clinical objectives in an effective manner. Moreover, the team members become satisfied when effective communication between the team members prevail due to which they understand the aspects of their jobs, prevalence of conflicts hinders and role clarity increases and hence, communication plays a significant role in making the team members satisfied with their jobs (Mayor et al., 2013).
Information Flow, Safety Measures and Medication Errors, and Hospitalization Duration
The decreased duration of hospitalization indicates that the patients have recovered in the optimum duration of time without acquiring new diseases and they have been treated in an adequate manner. It also indicates the efficiency of the healthcare organization by means of the increased extent of recovery in a less duration of time. It also indicates that the turnaround time for patient recovery and care has been decreased due to which the healthcare organization has better resources to offer its services to a large number of population (Mayor et al., 2013).
The decreased hospitalization duration is achieved when the nursing staff implements the care plans and interventions in an effective manner. Moreover, the safety measures for the patients, like frequent repositioning to avoid pressure ulcers, active monitoring to reduce the number of patient falls and integrated work practices to reduce the medication errors by means of missing the provision of medications or provision of wrong dosage of medications. These errors can increase the morbidity rate of the patient can increase their stay whereas, eradicating these errors ensure the eradication of delayed stay for the patients (Gausvik et al., 2015).
These errors can be eradicated when adequate flow of information among the nursing teams prevail by means of the adequate documentation, personal debriefings and meetings. In this manner, the team members know about the progress of the implemented care plan and can incorporate required actions in order to provide care to the patients if the level of care has not been addressed effectively. It helps the nurses to switch their shifts while ensuring that patient is provided with the necessary care and this extent of care is possible with the adequate flow of information, which is eventually facilitated by the effective communication among the nursing team members (Mayor et al., 2013).
Concept Map
References
Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H., & Schlaudecker, J. (2015). Structured nursing communication on interdisciplinary acute care teams improves perceptions of safety, efficiency, understanding of care plan and teamwork as well as job satisfaction. Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare,8, 33.
Mayor, E., Bangerter, A., & Aribot, M. (2012). Task uncertainty and communication during nursing shift handovers. Journal of advanced nursing,68(9), 1956-1966.
