COMMUNICATION COLLABORATION IN HEALTH CARE (Essay Sample)

Collaboration in health care Introduction Working together with other people is a significant part of our life in everyday activity. Health sector consists of different professionals who do different roles but always work towards achieving the same goal of protecting, improving and maintaining the health of people. Coordination and teaming up of health workers in any health care unit is essential to the success of the health sector. Therefore, health workers need to acquire and adopt skills to effective collaboration. Communication among the health professionals is the most critical factor in maintaining their relationship and improves their way of delivering services. Therefore, this paper aims at exploring the importance of working across professionals. Additionally, the paper will also discuss the importance of collaboration. Finally, the paper will look into some of the examples that show on good practices that result in efficient multi-agency working. Working across boundaries Working across boundaries is critical to health workers as it enables them to understand the roles and responsibilities of other professionals. Workers who work across boundaries seek to work with other professionals collaboratively for the benefits of people in need of care services. Working across boundaries helps in avoiding rescuer role (Bryson n.d.). Additionally, working across boundaries help the workers to stay focused on their responsibilities. It also enforces accountability of nurse to the client and makes sure provision of necessary services to their clients. Consequently, working across boundaries enables people to work and practice healthcare within the principles, and rules and regulations at all times. This helps in maintaining professionalism by ensuring all activities by various healthcare workers are conducted within the boundaries of confidentiality and provisions. The principle of prioritizing the care of others and treating other professionals with dignity is critical to boundary works (Nancarrow, and Borthwick, 2005). The principles demand the professionals working across boundaries to exercise honesty, integrity, and accountability of their actions. This is critical to professionals in building trust between them and other agency worker and function lawfully. Observing the rules and regulations also enables professionals to protect their registration from being questioned, thereby keep their occupation. Working across boundaries enables health workers to work closely with the people, groups, and caregivers. The professionals use a range of skills to carry out comprehensive systematic and holistic assessments which adds to their knowledge and skills. Furthermore, operating across boundaries results in the use of wide range of information and facts to improve the health of people, communities, and the rest of population. Working across boundaries helps in maintaining healthy, open, communicating and functioning team. This is achieved by offering supportive efforts in decision-making which support people and caregivers to make choices about their healthcare needs. Interaction with other professionals across boundaries provides physical and emotional safety to health workers. Health workers in this section get to know and understand the people they interact with at the healthcare facility. Professional health workers that work across boundaries can make person-centered, evidence-based decisions through collaboration with other practitioners to ensure delivery of quality care. Professional boundaries indicate the code of conducts and roles which helps govern the worker's behavior and reduce anxieties. In addition, professional boundaries create a beneficial environment for health care services through mutual respects among the individuals. Importance of collaboration in team Collaboration is essential to teamwork as it facilitates and promotes self-analysis. It also challenges people to think, absorb and get clarity about their competencies and abilities. Additionally, collaboration gives the health workers ability to show and understand their strengths and weaknesses (Global E-Business 2011). Cooperation is essential to the growth of professional work. Professional work requires real education and sharing information and opinions for efficient work performance. Through collaboration, workers can combine their specialization, skills, and idea on how to better their work performance, which helps in productivity. Workers in collaborative work settings often experience a high level of social support. In a team, members support each other practically and emotionally during difficult and stressful situations. Collaboration helps health workers to recognize and respond to an individual’s physical, social and psychological needs (Boyer, 2017). Health workers need to plan, deliver and check their services. They need to offer technically safe, competent, person-centered care that addresses all their daily activities. These services should be in partnership with other people and their caregivers, families and other professionals. Health workers recognize and understand symptoms and signs of regular and shifting health through collaboration. The health workers support and improve the health and safety of others through identification and understanding of the changes. The ability to identify changes is made possible through sharing of knowledge and skills among professionals, and even through interactions. Through collaboration, health workers can recognize and understand at any stage of life a person is at risk to the vulnerable environmental conditions. Therefore, health practitioners find the need to provide extra support and protection. Furthermore, they must safeguard the patient against abuse of any kind. Collaboration also enables health workers to adopt new roles and new ways of thinking. A nurse may take the position of a doctor in action, talk and look. This role expands the knowledge and skills of the nurse. Therefore, nurses opt to do further research and learn more than what their responsibilities and profession require. Collaboration also helps people to exercise leadership roles and function competitively. In collaborating people form teams which develop into groups that need leaders to guide them. Collaboration is essential in building partnerships and therapeutic relationships through safe, efficient and non-discriminatory communication (William and Sullivan 2007). Through collaboration, health workers can understand each other, their difference, capabilities, and needs which helps them to develop effective communication strategies. Cooperation between workers is vital in the changing organizational structure. Most of the industries organize their work in hierarchically groups and teams. The groups work and develop their methods for accomplishing tasks assigned to them. Collaboration facilitates problem-solving process. Individuals usually have varying ideas on various issues as a result when they come together they can solve a problem quickly due to the several points of view presented. This facilitates and speeds up the process of finding a solution for a problem that would have taken a lot of valuable time solving it. Hence, collaboration creates workers with vast, competent, and more experienced values. Additionally, through virtual collaboration, a healthcare facility can reduce it cost because the need for financial and infrastructure are eliminated or reduced. Collaboration also enhances employee retention and job satisfaction. Cooperation brings new ideas, meaning and adds value to worker’s perception towards their job. Workers feel passionate about their job, and the spirit of teamwork is felt which motivates the employee to be productive (Global E-Business, 2011). As a result, an employer is persuaded to retain the workers due to their performance. Through collaboration, the workload in the workplace becomes easy because of the division of labor among all team members ensuring. Work that could be done by an individual for several days through collaboration it gets done within a day. The partnership between workers ensures planned and coordinated service delivery. It also guarantees delivery of cost-effective services. Collaboration ensures all members of the team are used efficiently. Furthermore, it prevents duplication of activities in service delivery as every member get to know their roles and responsibilities. When professionals come together, a cross-fertilization of skills and talents takes place among workers. The team members start to showcase the importance of true multi-skilling without compromising the professional standards of each discipline. In collaboration, people treat and perceive each other equal despite the difference in their professional roles. The equality promotes and motivates the workers to work hard to meet the team goals which makes them more confident and competent in their performance. Examples of how good practice could give to the effectiveness of a multi-agency team. Good practices ensure increased understanding and trust between agencies. This leads to team members being accountable for their roles. Good practices result in improved communication and interaction between professionals. When team members have good communication practices, they can listen, recognize, and respond to personal psychological needs. These activities improve interactions and result in efficient multi-agency working. In a report of "Every child matters," several organizations joined with the Government and worked together with the aim to safeguard the child health. Hospitals, schools, police, and voluntary groups teamed up in several ways by sharing information. North Middlesex health care in London admitted Victoria. She was very ill, malnourished, bruised, physically deformed and had low temperatures (Atkinson et al., 2004 pp. 51). Dr. Lesley Alsford and other health wo...