Improving Patient Care And Outcomes Discussion
Improving Patient Care And Outcomes Discussion
During this week’s textbook reading, we took a look at the dynamics of working in interprofessional teams. Reflect back on your experiences working with interprofessional teams. Is there a particular situation in which you should have spoken up for your patient, but did not? Explain. What kept you from speaking up?
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Reply 1 Marcos
Interprofessional teamwork motivates healthcare professionals to work in collaboration with patients and carers to address their care as well as to make decisions with the intention of improving patient care and outcomes. During my internship at a city hospital as a patient care assistant, I worked with interprofessional teams including doctors, and nurses. Working with interprofessional teams, I noticed several aspects that involve patients’ safety but I did not speak up for the patient. For instance, a 56-year-old male patient was brought into the hospital; the patient complained of experiencing pressure, tightness, pain that has spread to his neck, jaw and back. The patient also complained of experiencing shortness of breath, nausea, indigestion as well as cold sweat, and, lightheadedness or sudden dizziness. Improving Patient Care And Outcomes Discussion
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Having talked to the patient, the doctor diagnosed him with a gastric problem when in fact he was having a heart attack. Based on the symptoms that, the patient presented, I knew that he was having a heart attack, though the doctor diagnosed him with gastric problem and immediately began treatment for gastric problem. Even though I realized that, the patient might be having a heart attack, I failed to speak up for the patient since I did not inform the doctor to assess the patient once more for heart attack. Since the patient informed the doctor that he smokes and drinks alcohol, the doctor advised him to cut down on drinking alcohol and smoking, yet the doctor needed to offer the patient blood-thinning medications. What kept me from speaking up for the patient include fear of retaliation, being reprimanded. I assumed that, the doctor’s retaliate with anger which could also affect job. According to Finkelman, (2017), speaking up for patients’ safety is important in healthcare since it enhances patient care and outcomes. Just like in my case, speaking up for patients would reduce misdiagnosis instances which would in turn promote safety of patients. Improving Patient Care And Outcomes Discussion
Reply 2: Maria R
Interprofessional collaboration is described by Finkelman (2017) as a process of working with different professionals in order to attain the desired goal of a specific health concern or concern. When responding to a particular health problem, interprofessional collaboration requires providers to work in mutual respect and be committed. Working as a team requires members to source knowledge from different disciplines, though each one should stick to his/her professional lane. Sometimes these teams blend various disciplines as a single whole. Some years ago, in my country of origin, I had found myself working in a multidisciplinary team when I was in my morning shift in a local hospital. As I was working with my team, I conducted an HIV test to one of my patients. I withheld the results of my client. The reason I did not disclose the laboratory results to the client was the stigma and trauma that would occur later. Healthcare providers, according to Finkelman (2017), are guided by procedures and protocols, though when faced with situations, our critical thinking differs from one another.
The reason I held back the results is the nature of HIV diagnosis, which is stressful even if the patient would be conversant with the current antiretroviral therapy. As stated, HIV is traumatizing, and it is a chronic illness that will change the whole lifestyle of the patient, primarily if the advanced disease is already known. Though health professionals are not allowed to see the health prognosis of their patients, providers should be protected from applications of standard precautions (Finkelman, 2017). Considering the client had other health complications, I considered the impact the news of HIV results would culminate to. But as a healthcare professional, I need to know the patient condition in order to construct appropriate interventions, including offering diagnosis for related conditions. I learned from this that we always need to work as a team and we have to advocate for our patients, always telling them the truth no matter how hard it is Improving Patient Care And Outcomes Discussion.
