Communications Between Healthcare Professionals, Essay Example

There have not been many studies that have examined the connection, if any, between adverse events in hospitals that seriously and sometimes fatally affect patient care, and the significant gaps in communication that exist among doctors and nurses in hospitals, including some of the largest and most reputable institutions.  In one such study, it was concluded that adverse events during hospital admission are a serious problem, occurring in approximately 9% of all admitted patients and causing a lethal outcome in 7% of such cases.  Because such a large number of these incidents are related to the period preceding or following operations or the administration and dosage of drugs, it is obvious that almost half of these events are preventable so that money and efforts should be directed into finding ways to intervene in order to decrease or eliminate such events  (E N de Vries, 2008) . In one such study, the information needs of doctors and nurses at New York City’s Presbyterian Hospital were examined, with somewhat startling results: there were very few similarities between the needs of the doctors and nurses, and a great many differences.  Specifically, the only two reported common needs between both professions were: wishing to have lab report results more available via the Internet, and identifying and being able to contact the patient’s other healthcare providers.

On the other hand, there were many significant differences between the two professions’ communication needs: nearly all the doctors use the Internet for specialty reports while only 35% of nurses do so; physicians wanted lists of medications and the times administered, problem lists, outpatient notes, lists of current providers for the patients, laboratory and other test results, providers that are on-call and how to contact them, disease management information, prescribing information, and medical formulas linked to patient data.  The nurses’ needs were quite different: they were more interested in knowing patient diagnose sees, laboratory and test results, policies and other hospital procedures, census reports, drug information such as dosages and side effects, diagnostic definitions and educational materials (McKnight, 2002.)

This paper will examine three specific information needs identified in the above named study, and discuss methods to remedy the issues so that information can be more relevant and accurate.

A cluster of information needs involved the use of the Internet, or lack thereof, by both doctors’ need for disease management information and prescribing information, and nurses’ need for diagnostic definitions, drug information and educational material.  What is unclear is how adept the medical staff may be in conducting searches on the Internet: there may be lax of consistency in the terminology used to search for the needed information.  Different groups of people may have different search strategies, some more successful than others. An easy way to remedy this would be to invest in in-service training for doctors and nurses about how to conduct Internet searches for needed information that would result in faster, more accurate and much needed information.  It was discovered that few healthcare professionals seemed to consider that the library could be helpful with the access in training regarding online resources (Younger, 2010.) Librarians could play a vital role in clarifying online access and in providing training to medical staff to utilize the Internet efficiently for patient care.  The services offered by the library could be easily highlighted to medical staff.

The use of a virtual whiteboard could be a tremendous asset and timesaver as well in providing such information as medications prescribed in times administered as well as listing the patient’s other healthcare providers and their phone numbers, with the patients’ diagnoses.  This practice would save time and improve visibility on the floor unit as well as the hospital at large.  It would also allow clinicians to add other information and times to improve the management of patients’ status and overall length of stay (Versel, 2010.)

Finally, in response to the doctors reporting that they had difficulty recognizing which nurse was which, an extremely low tech, common-sense solution to this problem could be managed by posting a small picture of each nurse’s face, with his or her name underneath it, and kept behind the nurses’ station to prevent the embarrassment of not knowing who your colleagues are, as well as providing more continuity in communicating about patient care.  It seems indisputable that when someone knows the name of another colleague, they are more likely to seek out needed contact more frequently and easily.  This is an example of ways in which at times, merely thinking through a problem can be improved without high tech, complex methodologies and expenses.

References

E N de Vries, M. A. Ramrattan, S.M.  Smorenburg, D J Gouma, & M A Boermeester (2008, June 2). The incidence and Nature of in-Hospital Adverse Events: A Systematic Review. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from Quality & Safety in Health Care: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2569153/

McKnight, L. K. (2002). Perceived Information Needs: Communication Difficulties of Inpatient Physicians and Nurses. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association , pp. S64-S69.

Versel, N. (2010, October 18). Virtual White Board Helps To Cut Hospital Length of Stay. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from Fierce Health: http://www.fiercehealthit.com/story/virtual-white-board-helps-cut-hospital-length-stay/2010-10-18

Younger, P. (2010, February 17). Internet-based Information-Seeking Behaviour Amongst Doctors and Nurses: A Short Review of the Literature. Retrieved February 5, 2011, from Health Libraries Group: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/j.1471-1842.2010.00883.x/full