The article discusses the problems and possibilities of nurses in becoming interprofessional leaders and bringers of change to interdisciplinary education and practice. Clarke and Hassmiller (2013) have brought up a very challenging and timely topic because, as the researchers notice themselves, the current system of healthcare produces many treatment errors resulting in unwanted patient outcomes. Therefore, professional medical workers should work together to ensure the patient’s needs are addressed in the best way possible. Both the interviewer and the interviewee show the greatest commitment to this cause. Moreover, Hassmiler is working to implement interprofessional collaboration in medical education, which makes her even more competent to discuss the matter as she could provide experienced insight into how the matter is currently developing. However, there are known limitations of this work, existing in the form of the tight curriculum.
The recent study on interprofessional education outlined that there is a mostly positive influence of such tuition on practice in nursing and other healthcare spheres (Reeves, Perrier, Goldman, Freeth, & Zwarenstein, 2013). These findings once more stress the urgency of the topic that the article under discussion raised. The role of a nurse in the process of transdisciplinary collaboration is viewed as leading. The reason for this may be that this profession is most directly and strongly linked to patients often becoming a mediator between them and other medical workers. Nonetheless, there is a barrier that may obstruct the implementation of such a scheme. According to Clarke and Hassmiller (2013), despite being experts in their daily routine, present-day nurses still have a blurred vision of their position in the hierarchy of healthcare.
On the one hand, such a situation requires better education on the theory of nursing. On the other, operating in the interprofessional environment in leadership positions could provide the necessary practical knowledge to resolve this issue, as it would allow comparing and contrasting the tasks of each member of the team. All in all, the article raises nurses’ awareness of the need to participate in interdisciplinary work and outlines the barriers that can undermine the effectiveness of such participation.
References
Clarke, P. N., & Hassmiller, S. (2013). Nursing leadership: Interprofessional education and practice. Nursing Science Quarterly, 26(4), 333-336.
Reeves, S., Perrier, L., Goldman, J., Freeth, D., & Zwarenstein, M. (2013). Interprofessional education: Effects on professional practice and healthcare outcomes (update). Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, 1(3), 1-49.