In the healthcare industry, multiple issues can significantly address the quality of care that patients obtain. The given change proposal will focus on the fact that interprofessional communication can address individual health outcomes. In particular, a lack of communication can prevent the development of teamwork in various medical settings and contribute to many adverse consequences, meaning that a practical intervention is necessary to minimize this harmful effect.
To begin with, one should explain that the lack of communication among nurses and other healthcare professionals can lead to worsened teamwork in different settings. Scholarly sources support this claim and reveal that the problem can impact emergency departments, nursing homes, general wards, and others (Gharaveis et al., 2018; Anderson et al., 2018; Goh et al., 2020). These findings allow for supposing that all medical professionals can suffer from the issue irrespective of whether they work in a general hospital or a separate surgery department. That is why it is impossible to deny the statement that the problem is significant for the whole healthcare industry.
Now, it is reasonable to describe and conceptualize the issue under consideration. The lack of communication refers to those cases when nurses experience various barriers that prevent them from productive information sharing with their colleagues. For example, this problem includes instances when a medical worker does not know what, when, and how to say to a different healthcare professional, which results in inaccurate, delayed, or incomplete data transfer (Martin et al., 2019). Simultaneously, teamwork issues relate to situations where medical workers fail to cooperate efficiently due to various barriers.
One cannot overestimate the harmful effects of the issue under consideration, and multiple scholarly articles prove it. For example, Campbell et al. (2020) stipulate that a significant part of hospital deaths is connected to communication and teamwork inefficiencies. The issues under analysis can also lead to medication errors that adversely affect patients and their health (Shitu et al., 2018). Simultaneously, Anderson et al. (2018) highlight that nursesâ communication issues can contribute to health problems among nursing home patients. One can conclude that sufficient evidence proves that communication and teamwork inefficiencies can be dangerous.
Even though it has been mentioned that the topic is of significance for the healthcare industry, it is reasonable to emphasize specific aspects. Reising et al. (2017) admit that communication and teamwork lead to safer patient outcomes. This finding aligns with Gharaveis et al. (2018), stating that successful communication can contribute to efficient and safe care. Thus, there is no doubt that there is a demand for reliable and efficient communication in the healthcare industry to achieve various positive outcomes (Barton et al., 2018). This information implies that it is impossible to ignore any drawbacks regarding this issue.
According to the information above, it is necessary to offer an effective solution to address the problem. A few scholars admit that education involving simulation sessions is a suitable intervention (Campbell et al., 2020; Reising et al., 2017). The rationale behind this statement refers to the fact that nurses are placed in real-life situations, which should help them learn how to respond to different challenges. Simulation activities allow for acquiring experiences and skills that will help solve real-life problems.
In conclusion, the lack of communication is a fundamental challenge in the healthcare industry. This issue leads to reduced teamwork, and the combination of these problems can result in decreased health outcomes among patients and other interprofessional drawbacks. Since inadequate communication can address multiple medical settings, it is reasonable to offer a practical solution. According to scholarly evidence, simulation-based education is a suitable approach since it helps medical professionals gain skills and experience to solve real-life problems.
References
Anderson, A., Frank, C., Willman, A. M., Sandman, P.-O., & Hansebo, G. (2018). Factors contributing to serious adverse events in nursing homes. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 27(1-2), e354-e362. Web.
Barton, G., Bruce, A., & Schreiber, R. (2018). Teaching nurses teamwork: Integrative review of competency-based team training in nursing education. Nurse Education in Practice, 32, 129-137. Web.
Campbell, A. R., Layne, D., Scott, E., & Wei, H. (2020). Interventions to promote teamwork, delegation, and communication among registered nurses and nursing assistants: An integrative review. Journal of Nursing Management, 28(7), 1465-1472. Web.
Gharaveis, A., Hamilton, D. K., Pati, D., & Shepley, M. (2018). The impact of visibility on teamwork, collaborative communication, and security in emergency departments: An exploratory study. HERD: Health Environments Research & Design Journal, 11(4), 37-49. Web.
Goh, P. Q. L., Ser, T. F., Cooper, S., Cheng, L. J., & Liaw, S. Y. (2020). Nursing teamwork in general ward settings: A mixedâmethods exploratory study among enrolled and registered nurses. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 29(19-20), 3802-3811. Web.
Martin, G., Khajuria, A., Arora, S., King, D., Ashrafian, H., & Darzi, A. (2019). The impact of mobile technology on teamwork and communication in hospitals: A systematic review. Journal of the American Medical Informatics Association, 26(4), 339-355. Web.
Reising, D. L., Carr, D. E., Gindling, S., Barnes, R., Garletts, D., & Ozdogan, Z. (2017). An analysis of interprofessional communication and teamwork skill acquisition in simulation. Journal of Interprofessional Education & Practice, 8, 80-85. Web.
Shitu, Z., Hassan, I., Aung, M. M. T., Kamaruzaman, T. H. T., & Musa, R. M. (2018). Avoiding medication errors through effective communication in the healthcare environment. Movement, Health, & Exercise, 7(1), 115-118. Web.