The explanation of interprofessional teams in the healthcare setting Essay

Interprofessional Teams in the Healthcare Setting
According to Koch (2014), Members of an interprofessional team can include, "chaplains, nurses, dieticians, pharmacists, physical therapists, physicians, respiratory therapists, social workers, and speech language pathologists who cooperate, collaborate, communicate, and integrate care to ensure that care is continuous and reliable" (p. 462). Interprofessional teams are instrumental to the healthcare system because each participant brings a distinctive set of skills, knowledge and experience to the table. Interprofessional teams have been shown to improve client care and satisfaction, reducing the length of stay for patients while reducing hospital costs (Koch, 2014, p. 464).
Increasing Patient Centered Care
Osbiston (2013) discusses the role of practitioners in interprofessional teams. Practitioners can help improve communication between team members, increase patient centered care and improve patient satisfaction. The practitioner should use their knowledge and understanding of patient's rights to provide support to the patient both physically and emotionally (Osbiston, 2013, p. 111). Osbiston (2013) stated, "Patients are key team members, with values, beliefs and an intrinsic decision-making ability that may influence their behavior, ethical views and preferences" (p. 111). It is paramount that members of the interprofessional team learn from each other and about each other's professional roles in order to make patient centered care work (Osbiston, 2013, p. 111). All of the needs of the patient cannot be met by only one healthcare professional. It is a necessity that all members of the healthcare team communicate and collaborate using their ethical understanding in order to effectively work together for patient centered care (Osbiston, 2013, p. 113).
Decreasing Length of Stay
Suhayda, Sutton (2015) conducted a study in a hospital in Freehold, NJ with stroke patients. The purpose was to implement an interprofessional team approach using nurses, doctors and social workers to help improve patient care, decrease length of stay and reduce hospital costs (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 305). Stroke patients have "Medical conditions with complex management needs that can benefit from an interdisciplinary plan of care" (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 304). Each member of the interprofessional team was asked to "facilitate a collaborative care-planning approach by allowing nurses to implement a patient-specific collective plan quickly and easily, and derived from best evidence content" (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 305). This allowed the team to effortlessly update the plan of care and allowed it to become a more natural part of the flow of the work day. The plan of care became increasingly more efficient, allowed the nurses to improve documentation and have an increased positive attitude (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 305). The average length of stay for a stoke patient was 7.44 days before implementation of the interprofessional teams (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 304). After the implementation the average hospital length of stay decreased to 4.6 days (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 307). "This resulted in savings of approximately $2300 per patient stay" (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 307). Press-Ganey surveys also showed a 3.7% improvement on patient satisfaction surveys. (Sutton & Suhayda, 2015, p. 307).
Conclusion