Communication and collaboration
Communication and collaboration is the area in which good and effective nursing skills are required so that nurses can facilitate effective team work for patients. This essay uses the Kolb’s reflective cycle on a case related to diabetic patients who requires collaborative work of different health care professionals and effective communication techniques of the nurses.
Concrete experience
During my clinical placement, there was an incident that occurred while I was taking care of a diabetic patient in our clinical setting. The patient was admitted for the past one week and he had various complications including diabetes, hypertension and exacerbation of the heart. The patient was getting discharged and my colleague was instructed to communicate with other health care professionals like dietician, physiotherapist and psychologists to educate the patient on diabetic self-management. The education of the patient involves the collaborative work of other health care professionals. The failure of nurse to collaborate with other health care professionals would result in poor education of the patient on self- management techniques for managing diabetes.
Reflective observation
I observed that she was unable to communicate with other health care professionals and lacks good communication skills. This highlight the importance of good and effective communication in collaborative work practice. Nurses should have good communication skills to help them work better with other teams (Krueger et al., 2017). I also learnt the importance of clear communication as it help relay information clearly to the other teams so that the work gets done in proper and orderly fashioned. Communication skills is an integral part of nursing and improper communication could be devastating for the patients especially during emergencies.
Abstract conceptualization
Communication skills holds a lot of importance in nursing because nurses are the first in line that facilitates effective communication between patients and health care professionals (Dean & Barbour, 2016). Collaborative practice involves facilitating different disciplinary teams to work together for the best outcome of the patient. According to Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia (2016), nurses should participate and lead in collaborative practices. They should use skills such as delegation and coordination in professional relationships to achieve improved and desired patient outcomes (Mueller et al., 2015).
Active experimentation
In the future, I will always ensure that all nurses are equipped with good communication skills so as to facilitate collaborative team work when required for any patient. Collaborative work includes the collaboration of different medical health care professionals so as to deliver safe care to patients. In this case, collaborative team work and communication was important to deliver proper ad safe education to the patient on diabetes management at home.
Conclusion
To conclude, collaborative team work can be facilitated by the nurses using effective communication skills and if nurses lacks them then, this could result in unsafe practices. Collaborative team work helps in achieving desired patient outcomes and also assists in patient management.
References
Dean, M., Gill, R., & Barbour, J. B. (2016). “Let’s sit forward”: Investigating interprofessional communication, collaboration, professional roles, and physical space at EmergiCare. Health Communication, 31(12), 1506-1516.
Krueger, L., Ernstmeyer, K., & Kirking, E. (2017). Impact of Interprofessional simulation on nursing Students' attitudes toward teamwork and collaboration. Journal of Nursing Education, 56(6), 321-327.
Mueller, C. A., Tetzlaff, B., Theile, G., Fleischmann, N., Cavazzini, C., Geister, C., & Hummers‐Pradier, E. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration and communication in nursing homes: a qualitative exploration of problems in medical care for nursing home residents–study protocol. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 71(2), 451-457.
Nursing and Midwifery Board of Australia. (2016). Registered nurse standards for practice. Retrieved from https://www.nursingmidwiferyboard.gov.au/Codes-Guidelines-Statements/Professional-standards/registered-nurse-standards-for-practice.aspx