Introduction
The work setting selected for this assignment is the field of oncology in one of the cancer clinics in the region. Interprofessional teams are present in the workplace as nutritionists, radiologists, nurses, and other support staff members are involved in the day-to-day running of the facility. One of the team functions that could be improved is the frequency of having meetings with all care providers to assess the best care plans suitable for different patients. Currently, communication is mainly through emails instructing different care providers on how to deal with diverse cases within the clinic. Therefore, weekly staff meetings to assess and discuss the best available care plans would go a long way to ensure improved patient outcomes and satisfaction together with reduced morbidity and mortality. In addition, the adoption of the case management model of nursing would also play a big role in tailoring care to meet specific needs for different patients.
Compassion
Compassionate care is one of the key pillars of holistic nursing. According to Pfaff, and Markaki (2017), compassionate care is “the recognition, empathic understanding of and emotional resonance with the concerns, pain, distress or suffering of others coupled with motivation and relational action to ameliorate these conditions” (p. 66). Therefore, given the overarching need to promote this attribute in nursing practice, one of the actions that could be used include creating a system for shared decision-making and goal-setting between nurses and patients and their loved ones. This strategy would involve individuals from other professions to work towards achieving the same goal of improved compassionate care. The culture of the selected workplace for this assignment would change significantly following the integration of compassionate care into the normal service delivery to patients. Teams would be required to meet regularly and address the issue, which does not happen currently. The result of focusing on compassion in care would be improved patient outcomes. When patients and their loved ones are involved in decision-making concerning their care plans, they own the process and better results are achieved.
Advocacy
Nurses play an important role as advocates for patients. Advocacy requires nurses to work collaboratively with other care providers to ensure that patients’ rights and needs are heard and met. Nurse advocates are the link between patients and health care systems (Davoodvand, Abbaszadeh, & Ahmadi, 2016). A nursing action that could contribute to advocacy through interprofessional team support is to start educating patients about their different illnesses, diagnoses, and the available options of care. Currently, at the clinic in question, nurses and other care providers are not engaged fully in patient education. This action would transform the current culture into a patient-centered workplace whereby patients’ needs take precedence over anything else happening within the workplace. Consequently, patient outcomes would improve significantly because when patients are educated about their illnesses, they become part of the intervention procedures and better outcomes are realized.
Resilience
Nurses face numerous challenges when providing care to patients across the care continuum. In some cases, some may suffer from depression, anxiety, and other related health conditions. Therefore, resilience is needed to overcome such challenges and continue being present to meet patient needs at all times. According to Chesak et al. (2015), resilience allows nurses to recover quickly from difficult situations as an effective stress management strategy. In the workplace, a brief Stress Management and Resiliency Training (SMART) program would go a long way in preparing nurses to face and weather difficult situations. This program would change the organizational culture significantly because it does not exist currently. When nurses improve their capacity to handle stress through practical guidance, they become better at their work. As such, with improved care, better patient outcomes will be experienced at the oncology clinic selected for this assignment.
Evidence-Based Practice
Evidence-based practice is a problem-solving approach to most challenges faced during care provision. Research is one of the best ways to ensure evidence-based practice through interprofessional team support. According to Black, Balneaves, Garossino, Puyat, and Qian (2015), by acquiring the requisite research knowledge, nurses could contribute significantly to the nursing profession by promoting evidence-based practices. Currently, at the oncological clinic, nurses are not involved in any form of research. Therefore, by engaging in the same, they would overhaul the current organizational culture. Consequently, care outcomes would improve drastically because patients would receive tailored services that resonate with their environment and needs.
Summary
Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare provision is an important contributing factor to improved patient outcomes. When specialists from different professions work as a team, patients’ needs take precedence, which results in quality, timely, and affordable care. Different iCARE components, such as advocacy, evidence-based practice, resilience, and compassion can support interprofessional teams and patient outcomes by taking specific actions as discussed in this paper. Such actions change organizational cultures and make them patient-centered with improved patient outcomes through reduced morbidity and mortality and satisfaction. This process could be influenced by evaluating workplaces or organizations to assess what specific actions are needed to achieve the set objectives.
References
Black, A. T., Balneaves, L. G., Garossino, C., Puyat, J. H., & Qian, H. (2015). Promoting evidence-based practice through a research training program for point-of-care clinicians. The Journal of Nursing Administration, 45(1), 14-20. Web.
Chesak, S. S., Bhagra, A., Schroeder, D. R., Foy, D. A., Cutshall, S. M., & Sood, A. (2015). Enhancing resilience among new nurses: Feasibility and efficacy of a pilot intervention. The Ochsner Journal, 15(1), 38-44.
Davoodvand, S., Abbaszadeh, A., & Ahmadi, F. (2016). Patient advocacy from the clinical nurses’ viewpoint: A qualitative study. Journal of Medical Ethics and History of Medicine, 9(5), 2-8.
Pfaff, K., & Markaki, A. (2017). Compassionate collaborative care: An integrative review of quality indicators in end-of-life care. BMC Palliative Care, 16(1), 65-89. Web.