Collaboration: The Importance in Nursing Practice

Aligned CEC Standard:Collaboration

Aligned CEC Standard Elements

• 7.1 Special education specialists use culturally responsive practices to enhance collaboration.
• 7.2 Special education specialists use collaborative skills to improve programs, services, and outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities.
• 7.3 Special education specialists collaborate to promote understanding, resolve conflicts, and build consensus for improving programs, services, and outcomes for individuals with exceptionalities. (Council for Exceptional Children, n.d.)

Aligned CEC Specialty Set Knowledge and Skills

Knowledge: none

Skills:

• Coordinate processes that encourage collaboration needed for transition between settings.
• Provide leadership in collaborating with individuals and families around issues of sexuality.
• Collaborate with families and other team members in nonjudgmental ways to make informed decisions about interventions and life planning.
• Promote collaborative practices that respect individual family culture, dynamics, and values, and the effect the diagnosis may have on the family.
• Connect families and professionals to educational and community resources (Council for Exceptional Children, 2015).

Rationale

Collaboration is an important aspect of the nursing practice because it directly impacts the outcome of patient care. While interacting with patients on the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) or other developmental disorders, special communication skills to cooperate with the patient and their caregiver or family are essential to provide adequate care (Morris et al., 2019). Nursing practitioners should follow CEC’s collaboration standards to encourage productive communication with the patient, improve their information processing, and provide a comfortable and safe environment.

In my opinion, one of the most relevant skills from the CEC specialty set is collaborating with families to make educated decisions about appropriate interventions for the patient on the spectrum. Collaboration encourages problem-solving and decreases stress experienced by all parties (Morris et al., 2019). A practitioner and the patient’s family can work together to increase awareness about the patient’s special needs to introduce key interventions (Owen et al., 2020). Nurses can team up with the patient’s caregiver to tailor relevant strategies to comfortably approach the patient (Owen et al., 2020). Moreover, navigating different perspectives is important to help the patient and their family understand their diagnosis and treatment options (Morris et al., 2019). Overall, cooperation is an essential aspect of providing care for patients with ASD.

Collaboration is also crucial in terms of coordinating the process of transitioning between the environments. For example, by talking to the family in advance, a nurse can dim the lights to avoid sensory overload if the patient is prone to it (Owen et al., 2020). Encouraging the patient to bring a soothing object can also help them transition between the familiar and unfamiliar settings (Dunlap, 2018). Informing oneself about patients’ preferences on touching can also help them avoid unnecessary stress (Dunlap, 2018). Essentially, the comfort of a patient with ASD is directly affected by the communication between the practitioner, the patient, and the patient’s family.

Completing the assignment has helped me recollect the standard elements of effective collaboration and relevant skills. Having gained a profound understanding of how to better collaborate with patients with exceptionalities and their families, I will use these skills to deliver family-centered care.