Inter-Professional Communication

Abstract

Effective communication is essential in order for any team to be productive. However, not all teams tend to portray effectiveness in communication and this affects the quality of service. Provision of quality healthcare services demands a team of professionals to work together so as to meet the common goal. This will require a continuous update from each team member so that sound decision is taken. A team of healthcare professionals is required to meet and discuss the progress of their patient. In this case, interpersonal and inter-professional communication skills are vital. A video of a patient discharge meeting is considered for analysis. In the video, it is evidenced that the team lacks effective communication as each member of the team seems not to be bothered about the report of the other members. As a result of poor coordination among the team, the patient in question who is 71-years old is at risk of not getting quality care service prior being discharged. In general, such behaviors exhibited by the members of the team are the hindrance to effective communication and quality healthcare delivery.

Introduction

Healthcare industry is one of the vital industries in any given economy bearing in mind it helps in saving lives as well as enhancing lives. That being the case, the performance of the healthcare industry is critical. There are various players involved in the delivery of care services to a patient in a given healthcare facility. According to Rocchiccioli, & Tilbury, (1998), the collaboration among the professionals to work as a team so as to achieve the common goal is essential. On that note, effective communication among the team members is a critical aspect in realizing the common goal. Inter-personal and inter-professional communication aspects have to be looked into for the team to be productive. This report shall focus on a discharge meeting video where the status of collaboration among the team of professionals will be analyzed to determine the effectiveness of inter-professional and inter-personal communication.

The Importance of Interpersonal Communication

Communication is an essential aspect of any society as this ensures that people are able to understand each other (Blackman, & Walkerdine, 2001). On that account, the value attached to interpersonal communication cannot be quantified. It has to be noted that in the field of nursing, offering the best care service is critical and this is greatly influenced by effective communication. There are various players involved in delivering care to patients and thus the coordination among these players is vital. Communication is regarded to effective if the given information is shared to the right person at the right time and well understood and, as a result, it will lead to the sound decision being taken (Bach, Grant, & Bach, 2015). On that account, nurses and other players involved in delivery healthcare should ensure they communicate effectively. Time is a critical factor in healthcare and thus the information should always flow to the right person at the right time.

Listening is one of the vital aspects of interpersonal communication skills. It is only through attentive listening that one is able to grasp the information being shared. As a nurse, during hand-over, it is fundamental that one’s listening skills are effectively utilized so that information regarding each patient under one’s care is understood and clarification sought (Coulter, 2011). In addition, one should also be eloquent in sharing information such that whatever is being presented is well-understood and does not cause ambiguity as this can negatively impact the quality of nursing care (Suter, et. al, 2009). It is critical that feedbacks are important for an effective communication. The best communication model in the nursing field is a transactional model; this model holds that in communication one can be a source and receiver of information at the same time (Borbye, 2008). The critical aspect of this model is on feedback which determines if the message has been well-understood. Nurses should always communicate with patients as well as their parents as this will ensure vital information is shared among them hence impacting positively on the recovery process of the patient. Conversing with a patient is essential as the nurse will be able to understand the progress of the patient and in addition, communicate accurate information to the doctor and fellow nurse during hand-over (Wheeler, 2015).

Analysis of Behavioral Contributions of Each Individual Professional

Effective communication is greatly influenced by the surrounding and behavior of the people involved. It has to be noted that barriers to communication refer to the aspects or behaviors that can hinder effective communication. Language is a critical aspect of an effective communication and thus if people involved in communication do not have a common language then communication becomes a challenge (Balzer-Riley, 2012). The behavior people also influence effective communication. There are some activities that distract one’s attention or other people hence interfering with effective communication.

Based on this video is evident there is no language barrier hence all the professionals can communicate in English. However, the behaviors of the professionals in the discharge meeting are the barrier to effective communication. For instance, the doctor is busy checking her phone while in the discharge meeting. There is a lack of attention demonstrated by Dr. Mariah who is more focused on her phone and there is a high possibility that she will lose some vital information or may give wrong feedback. Other behavioral barriers that can be noted is that Joy who is one of the professional in the discharge meeting can be seen checking her nails and also scribbling something that is not related to the meeting. Dr. London who is in the meeting is giving updates of the patient but how he is sharing the information it is as if he is not interested or tired. Julie on the hand tends not to be in the meeting and she had to be touched tapped by one of the colleagues for her to deliver her report about the patient. Based on this video it is indisputable that there is poor communication among the nurses and this has a detrimental impact on the patient, hospital, and professionals. It can be noted from Dr. London report that the patient has not yet received discharge counseling and this is an indication of low-quality service from him or the team who are professional. In addition, it is the expectation of the client to get quality services but due to poor communication on job delegation by the professionals, it is unfortunate that the patient has not received quality service.

Analysis of the Effectiveness of This Inter-Professional Team

An organization has its objectives that have to be achieved by its employees and thus it is important for the staffs to embrace teamwork. Nurse and other healthcare professionals play a vital role in ensuring patients receive quality services and, on that note, a team of professional should collaborate as this will help them delegate duties and be able to achieve the core objectives (Hayes, & Rohani, 2012). According to the theory of team collaboration with regards nursing, nurses are expected to conduct their roles as a team so as to realize the common objective (Brock et al., 2013). This creates the sense that teamwork is essential in delivering quality healthcare services. A collaborative team can be evidenced by good communication among the team members. Based on the video, it tends to seem that the professional in the discharge meeting are not collaborative. This is evidenced by the fact that delegation of duties is not clear, Dr. London can be heard reporting that the patient to be discharged has not be counseled and further says that someone should counsel the patient. Such kind of conversation exhibits that the team is not collaborative. This can be a great impediment to the team meeting its objective as each member shall be expecting one of them to do the counseling. On that note, duties should be assigned to a given professional so as one to be accountable.

According to (McCarthy, 2017), an inter-professional collaborative approach is a process of utilizing communication and decision-making process that allows synergy influence of the team’s knowledge and skills. The critical aspects of inter-professional collaborative approach entail responsibility, accountability, cooperation communication, coordination, assertiveness, autonomy and mutual trust and respect (McCarthy, 2017).  That being the case, a team that can be regarded to be effective is one that has possessed the values identified by (McCarthy, 2017) and hence will be on the right path towards meeting the set goals. The discharge meeting video indicates a total crisis in the inter-professional interaction where all those values cited by (McCarthy, 2017) are missing.

Teamwork or collaboration among employees requires guidance or leadership. According to Galletta, Portoghese, Battistelli, & Leiter (2013), a leader of a team motivates the team and serves as a role model to the team and above all ensures that there is decorum. However, in the video, it appears that the lead doctor has lost control of the team and hence collaboration among the member team cannot be achieved. As a leader, one should be able to caution the members to stop any acts that are likely to distract such a critical meeting but the leader doctor did not bother to bring decorum into the meeting. As a result, the nurses continued to indulge in activities that distracted concentration and purpose of the meeting. The presentation of the report by the each of the professionals is just a bizarre of what is expected from a team. The report of each of the team member is critical towards the recovery process of the patient and hence each team member should always pay attention to the report each one of them so as to understand the progress of the patient (Dawson, Taylor-Whilde, & Torkington, 2001). Unfortunately, this is not the case in the video as all the team members were concerned with their report and once one was done presenting the report, there was no attention given to report presented by another team member. As a result of poor collaboration among the team members, it is most likely the patient will not receive quality care. Based on video the patient appears to have a problem in taking his medication. This poses a risk towards his recovery process and as a team, they should have helped the patient. One of the professionals in the discharge meeting is suggesting that someone needs to talk to the patient about the mortality benefit of those drugs and this clearly indicates that the patient was not informed about the drugs and can even avoid talking the drugs. In addition, the patient is old and thus the team should have work on ways of informing the family of the patient about the drugs. From a glance it can be concluded that there is no teamwork as each one of those professional is not interested in the progress of each other so as to meet the common goal which is offering quality care to the respective patient.

Organizational Impact From Such a Team Performance

The reputation of an organization is intertwined with the performance of its staffs. On that note, an organization that has a productive workforce is likely to enjoy good publicity through word of mouth as a result of quality services. The same analysis is extended to healthcare facilities where the team involved in delivering healthcare services should provide quality services to the patients and the family members as it is the case for the family of the 71-years old patient discussed in the video. The actions by the team of professionals seen in the video can be described as sabotage towards the patient recovery process and in general, realizing the objective of the delivering quality nursing care services to the patient and hence cannot produce a positive outcome. Interpersonal collaboration is essential has the report presented by each professional has to be analyzed so that sound decision can be made. However, in the video, there is no concentration which is quite unfortunate for such professionals. As a result of their action which is due to ineffective communication as a team, the patient is not likely to get the best care. The family of the patient will not be satisfied with the quality of the services and are most likely to tarnish the image of the given healthcare facility.

Conclusion

It is indisputable that effective communication is vital not only in the healthcare sector but in other sectors. It has to be noted that the quality of services patients receives is greatly influenced by the effectiveness of communication demonstrated by the respective professionals. A team of professionals is involved in the delivery of care services to the patient and, on that note, the interpersonal and inter-professional communication is critical. Based on the video it is evidenced that the team lacks effective communication. The unfortunate thing is that the head nurse lacks control of the team and allows the team members to engage in activities that affect their concentration. As a result of poor concentration wrong decision can be made about a patient’s health progress. On that account, it is important that a team of professional that has a duty of enhancing the health of a patient, the team show work together to meet the common goal. Recommendation

There is a need to enhance the interpersonal communication at the respective hospital so that patients can be offered quality care services by the professional team. On that account, the following recommendation should be implemented to enhance the interpersonal communication;

Task allocation; the lead physician should ensure that each member of the team is aware of the responsibility s/he has to perform as this will ensure accountability and hence eliminate cases where members suggest someone should do a given task. The assertiveness of the lead physician is critical towards enhancing inter-professional communication since it will ensure decorum among the team members (Muñoz, Luckmann, & Luckmann, 2005).

At any given meeting there should be a total concentration of all members and no one should indulge in any form of activity that is not related to the meeting that one is in attendance. This move will ensure such acts like using phones, checking of nails et cetera are eliminated.

There should be a timely update from the team members. The team members should communicate with each other on the progress of the patient as this will help the team work towards meeting the common goal (Kuehn, Huehn, & Smalling, S. (2017). As it appears each member of the team is working solely which is not supposed to be the case.