Caring for people’s health requires the attention of many professionals who use their expertise and specific skills. While nurses have significant knowledge about healing and skills for communicating with patients, they cannot perform all procedures and tests necessary for one’s recovery. For example, in some states, nurses cannot diagnose conditions or prescribe medications; in other locations, they can only perform these actions under supervision (Schot et al., 2020). Nevertheless, healthcare cannot be complete without nurses who create a comfortable environment for patients and address their daily needs. Therefore, nurses become professional partners with other professionals, including doctors, therapists, social workers, and pharmacists, to deliver care. In my current work environment, nurses are seen as a part of a team – equal staff members who share the goals of caring and healing.
I work in a hospital unit where nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals interact daily to deliver care. It is standard for our department to have interdisciplinary teams that collaborate to perform their respective functions for each patient. Such participation allows every professional to share information during and at the end of each shift and stay informed about patients’ needs and problems. According to Schot et al. (2020), interprofessional collaboration helps improve health outcomes and can also bring financial and performance benefits to hospitals. As professional partners, nurses in my work setting are responsible for liaising with other team members. Moreover, nurses connect with patients and their families to bridge conversations filled with complex medical information.
However, such a high partnership level did not always exist in my workplace. The hospital’s staff went through some common problems related to interprofessional collaboration. The main issue was the attitude of physicians towards teaming up with nurses on daily rounds and shared care. Goldsberry (2018) notes that the hierarchical structure of healthcare is ingrained in many organizations, where nurses are viewed as subordinates rather than professional partners to doctors. Thus, conflicts occurred if physicians did not share the same amount of information that nurses did or if the two members of the same team did not approach a problem in a multidisciplinary way. For example, as nurses viewed treatment from the point of care, they emphasized the patients’ comfort, pain relief, and mental well-being. If a physician disagrees with nurses’ strategies of treatment and medication recommendations, conflicts could develop.
The hospitals’ professionals went through training and communicated openly about these issues to avoid future conflicts and improve collaboration. Currently, nurses, physicians, and other team members participate in information sharing regularly and agree on the language used to help the team and patients understand what is being said. This change allowed nurses in my workplace to utilize their full range of knowledge and expertise. Moreover, nurses were able to exercise their leadership and communications skills and advance in their careers, focusing on patient needs and advocating for their rights. Nurses without managerial duties also became partners and can now contribute their opinions to promote a patient-focused environment.
To conclude, nursing is viewed as a professional partner among other disciplines in the hospital where I work. Although the department went through some often-occurring issues with hierarchical inflexibility and communication barriers, interdisciplinary teams are a new standard. Nurses contribute knowledge to the team and use their skills to participate in the care process. Due to the unique patient-nurse relationships and nursing values, they are vital to patients’ health and comfort.
References
Goldsberry, J. W. (2018). Advanced practice nurses leading the way: Interprofessional collaboration. Nurse Education Today, 65, 1-3. Web.
Schot, E., Tummers, L., & Noordegraaf, M. (2020). Working on working together. A systematic review on how healthcare professionals contribute to interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), 332-342. Web.