This paper highlights interdisciplinary team communication as a tool for improving patient safety. The research topic stems from my practicum experience where I detected poor communication among different interdisciplinary teams. Relative to this assertion, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (2017) contends that proper communication is a requirement for the improvement of quality care. Furthermore, it links intercommunication skills with low incidents of patient falls and a strong culture of safety (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care, 2017). To support these findings, a study by Gausvik, Lautar, Miller, Pallerla, and Schlaudecker (2015) showed that improved communication between nurses and physicians improves health outcomes.
Different health facilities have unique policies and codes of conduct that dictate how employees from different disciplines interact with one another (Gausvik et al., 2015). Nonetheless, the Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (2017) says that interdisciplinary communications are also subject to the commonly accepted communication for safety standards. They influence care delivery, as explained by McCurry, Hunter Revell, and Roy (2010), who said that structured nursing knowledge improved the efficiency of acute care teams and job satisfaction. Based on the insights provided in this paper, the overarching goal of my practicum experience is to determine how to improve the quality of interdisciplinary teams in the healthcare setting. The objectives are as follows:
- To improve intergenerational communication by creating a diverse management team within one year.
- To promote intercultural communication by developing multicultural teams in one year.
- To encourage health professionals across different disciplines to collaborate by developing interdisciplinary teams in one year.
References
Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care. (2017). Communicating for safety. Web.
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(1), 33-37. Web.
McCurry, M. K., Hunter Revell, S. M., & Roy, S. C. (2010). Knowledge for the good of the individual and society: Linking philosophy, disciplinary goals, theory, and practice. Nursing Philosophy, 11(1), 42-52.