Interdisciplinary Collaborative Practice, Essay Example

Introduction

In the nursing profession, a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree is likely to promote change in practice and promote progress throughout the healthcare environment. This is best accomplished through collaboration with other nurses and across other professions. These intra- and interprofessional efforts are instrumental in advancing patient outcomes and in facilitating positive change within the practice environment. It is essential to minimize existing barriers within the nursing profession through increased collaborative efforts with physicians, therapists, and other clinical areas to accommodate the ever-changing direction and path of healthcare in the modern era (Institute of Medicine, 2010). Furthermore, nurses at the DNP level must demonstrate effective communication skills and achieve a framework for advancing progress for nurses through collaboration that will have a direct impact on patient care quality, expanding learning and knowledge, and humanizing the nursing profession in a positive manner (Institute of Medicine, 2010).

Analysis

Nurses at the DNP level must also exemplify leadership and set an example for others to follow through their actions, given the ever-increasing need to improve primary care settings and enhance collaboration to meet the needs of patients in a timely manner (Institute of Medicine, 2010). Nurses at all levels must continue to expand their scope of knowledge and practice so that they are able to effectively contribute to the profession and to successfully collaborate across the healthcare spectrum through team-based efforts (Wilhelmsson et.al, 2011). A number of factors are instrumental in this process, including prior experience, academic performance, and gender roles; therefore, it is imperative that DNPs recognize the value of collaboration as a key contributor in advancing the profession to new levels (Wilhelmsson et.al, 2011).

Existing models of interprofessional collaboration set the standard for change and progress in nursing practice, thereby creating an environment that services patients well and enables them to achieve greater wellbeing, while also enabling nurses to recognize the importance of other factors such as the cultural environment and the availability of resources to ensure that collaborations are successful (Bridges et.al, 2011). In this capacity, DNPs must work collaboratively to optimize best practices for nursing and to ensure that patient care quality is not compromised at any level (Bridges et.al, 2011). Nurses must also be able to effectively communicate with physicians and collaborate regarding individual patient cases, while also achieving a team-based approach to addressing other concerns that require interprofessional solutions (Martin et.al, 2010). Prior evidence supports the belief that interprofessional collaboration has a learning curve that may require a period of adjustment for some nurses, particularly as they gain comfort in leadership and other roles that require active participation and focus on a specific issue within a team-based environment (Martin et.al, 2010).

Conclusion

Nurses working in a variety of healthcare environments must embrace the concept of interprofessional collaboration in order to expand their knowledge, provide valuable input regarding the nursing profession, and actively lead efforts to improve patient care quality and related outcomes. It is expected that nurses will continue to expand their collaborative efforts with members of other healthcare professions as a means of achieving mutually beneficial goals and objectives. This strategy is likely to have numerous benefits for the healthcare community, as it enables DNP-level nurses to actively contribute to expanding knowledge and frameworks to identify critical problems in healthcare practice and achieve viable and practical solutions to these problems on a continuous basis.

References

Bridges, D. R., Davidson, R. A., Odegard, P. S., Maki, I. V., & Tomkowiak, J. (2011). Interprofessional collaboration: three best practice models of interprofessional education. Medical education online, 16.

Institute of Medicine (2010). The future of nursing: leading change, advancing health, pp. 1-4.

Martin, J. S., Ummenhofer, W., Manser, T., & Spirig, R. (2010). Interprofessional collaboration among nurses and physicians: making a difference in patient outcome. Swiss Med Wkly, 140, w13062.

Wilhelmsson, M., Ponzer, S., Dahlgren, L. O., Timpka, T., & Faresjö, T. (2011). Are female students in general and nursing students more ready for teamwork and interprofessional collaboration in healthcare?. BMC medical education, 11(1), 15.