Interprofessional Team Experience: Patient Safety & Quality Committee

Abstract

This paper presents the account of the personal experience of participation in interprofessional team. The author was involved in Patient Safety and Quality Committee along with other professional. This was a team that included a large number of professionals ranging from nurses to the senior managers. The purpose of it was to find viable ways to improve the current performance of the healthcare facility to achieve higher levels of safety for patients and quality of medical services. Each professional felt free to express one’s own point of view and contribute to the discussion. Thus, the doctors provided a more general and long-term perspective, while the nurses focused on practical and pragmatic points. The major advantage of having so many professionals is that the discussion of the issue was deep and effective. However, the large number made the process of negotiation rather difficult.

Introduction

I had an opportunity to participate in Patient Safety and Quality Committee. It included a number of professionals that put their efforts together in order to ensure that the safety of the patients, as well as the quality of medical service, will be at its highest. Given the fact that this committee included people from different professional backgrounds ranging from nurses to surgeons and senior managers one might suggest that the type of team in question may be identified as interprofessional. Another point that should be mentioned with this regard is that there was not evident subordination. In other words, the nurses did not feel that made a smaller contribution than the doctors and the latter did not feel that they had to obey to the decisions of the senior managers. Due to this atmosphere of cooperation, the team in question appeared to be quite successful.

Focus

The purpose of the team was to improve the current performance of the health care facility in terms of safety and quality. In order to do that, the professionals had to assess the current state of affairs. Each of the people participating made a small report about the area that one was involved it. This was particularly helpful since it provided the needed perspective on the topic for all the people attending the meeting of the committee. After the reports have been done, the team started discussing the possible ways in which the performance can be improved. It was decided that at first, the team members will brainstorm the problem, coming up with as many variants and ideas as possible even though they might not be financially plausible or even realistic. The next stage was to evaluate each of the alternative and comment on its feasibility. This was the major outcome of the team’s efforts.

Sequencing

As it has already been stated a considerable number of professionals that represented different fields were involved. First of all, there were doctors who are thought to perform the major role in providing health care services. There were doctors from different department which allowed the team to touch on a number of issues and approach the situation from different points of view. The nurses also made an important contribution. There was a senior nurse, but there also were several nurses that often made valuable points. There were a couple of representatives of other departments like Human Resources and Accounting. In addition to that, there were also several senior managers. The latter understood that their presence influenced the behavior of the rest of the colleagues; so, they tried to be as friendly as possible and encouraged exchange of the ideas.

An important point that should be mentioned with this regard focuses on the role that each of the disciplines played in the interprofessional exchange. So, the doctors presented the major bulk of the information: they talked about the services that the health care facility had to provide to the patients and outlined the desired level of quality. They also mentioned the possible complications and issues that were known to them, thus starting the discussion of the existing problem. The nurses provided a more practical as well as pragmatic approach. They showed how they work can contribute to safety and quality of the patients on the most basic level. This perspective was quite helpful since it united the views of all the people present. The representatives of different departments that did not actually provide any medical services brought up several administrative points to the discussion. This was also beneficial since it allowed the professionals to develop an even broader view on the topic.

Support

There is a number of advantages and disadvantages that can be identified in the practice mentioned above. Speaking of the former, it is useful to state that the involvement of the professionals that represented a number of different backgrounds contributed to the depth of the discussion. Indeed, the doctors knew a lot more about the needed level of quality of health care services, but they were not familiar with the small obstacles that the nurses had to face. This allowed the parties to exchange their views and come to a mutually acceptable conclusion (Bridges et al, 2011). Another advantage of the involvement of several professionals lies in the fact that they can say whether the initiatives proposed by their counterparts are viable and effective. This way the organization will be able to save a considerable amount of money and achieve success faster.

Nevertheless, there are some disadvantages that are associated with this approach as well. To begin with, it may be rather difficult for different professionals to meet in a single physical space due to differences in schedules. In other words, the more people are involved, the smaller is the probability that they will all be able to make to the meaning. Otherwise, there is no needed to form such a team since it will not be effective if some of the key members will not be present. Secondly, one should also note that a large number of people will also lead to an increasing difficulty of coming to a conclusion: it is possible that the professionals involved will have completely opposite views on the situation and it will be next to impossible to make them find some common ground (Mellin, Hunt & Nichols, 2011). Therefore, while the search for improvement of patient safety and quality did benefit from engaging different professionals, the nature of the group also made the achievement of the objective slightly more difficult.

Conclusion

Having examined all the points that were mentioned in the paragraphs above, one will be able to come to the following conclusion: the participation in the interprofessional team was extremely useful since it showed the advantages and the disadvantages of this form of participation. The team included representative of different departments, both those which provide medical services and those that do not. Each of the professionals played an important role in the discussion: some provided a broad perspective on the issues, outlining the long-term issues and how they can be solved; on the other hand, some of the participants focused on the practical and the pragmatic aspects of the issue, proposing their own solutions. The obvious advantage of having some many professionals is that the discussion of the topic was quite deep and effective, but the more people were involved, the more difficult it was to reach a compromise.

References

Bridges, D., Davidson, R. A., Soule Odegard, P., Maki, I. V., & Tomkowiak, J. (2011). Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education.   Medical education online, 16(1), 6035.

Mellin, E. A., Hunt, B., & Nichols, L. M. (2011). Counselor professional identity: Findings and implications for counseling and interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Counseling & Development, 89(2), 140-147.

The terms offer and acceptance. (2016, May 17). Retrieved from

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016.

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

freeessays.club (2016) The terms offer and acceptance [Online].
Available at:

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]

"The terms offer and acceptance." freeessays.club, 17 May 2016

[Accessed: March 28, 2024]
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