Collaboration at the organizational level ensures that duplication of services is reduced as opposed to the efficiency that would be in place if individual institutions handled all patients on their own. Collaboration is thus a cost-reducing method. Consider a group of healthcare providers in one locality all buying expensive equipment to provide similar services. This practice definitely drives costs higher for all institutions. A collaborative approach at the organizational level reduces the amount of duplicitous actions that medical care providers engage in through the sharing of information.
Collaboration at the personal level will include the transition of patients from hospital care to home care and follow-up activities. At-risk patients, especially children, are going to benefit from the application of collaboration as involved parties are interested in ensuring the health of the patient. Positive health outcomes are promoted as collaborative efforts between the advanced care team and the transition team are engaged for maintenance of the patients health. Inter-professional collaboration practices have found a lot of challenges in implementation, yet contribute to the better care of patients. For example, an inter-professional collaboration between occupational therapists and nurses is key in giving an accurate prognosis. Nonetheless, the collaboration levels at the acute care setting has faced a lot of challenges. The collaboration role makes sure that the different professionals understand their roles effectively and take advantage of those roles in the care setting (D'Amour, Ferrada-Videla, Martin-Rodriguez, & Beaulieu, 2005). The team can thus be assigned to a common number of patients and common goals are set with regards to the provision of care to the common patients. Teams possess special information sharing techniques and forums where common goals, assessments and evaluations are done with regards to the information sharing processes.
Improved patient outcomes have been noted upon the collaboration of healthcare individuals (Bridges, Davidson, Odegard, Maki, & Tomkowiak, 2011). This is because of higher overall efficiency of the team members as opposed to individuals working differently (Bissett, 2012). All professionals in the acute care setting, regardless of their field of expertise, work together to ensure positive patient outcomes through information sharing techniques (CIHC, 2010).
Attributes of Relationship-based Care
With inter-professional relationship being encouraged within the collaboration processes, these relationships have certain attributes that ensure the collaborative process goals are realized in the course of care provision (Wessel, 2015). Collaborative processes of care provision put the interests of the patient at the top of the caregivers priorities, giving this approach a patient-centered approach. Quality of care standards are measured by the omission of duplicitous actions in the course of care, and pursuit of more effective methods of care. Therefore, the collaborative approach between healthcare professionals forms the basis of relationship-based and patient-centered care for the DNP.
The major characteristic then of such practice is the shared goals of professionals within the organization. Wessel (2015) argues that the shared leadership platform is the most potent for the achievement of patient-centered care. In such an approach, the DNP will develop an objective-specific plan, which is shared with other professionals concerning the development of relationship-based care. Executive managers can form a committee through which they can make decisions, decentralizing the decision-making processes and involving other practitioners within the process. Such approaches boost empowerment and ownership of programs, thus building relationships between professionals. Common goals form the most fundamental characteristic in this approach, like the grund norm from which all other norms flow from. Some examples of the common goals that could be in this approach include patient satisfaction, a focus on organizational mission, which is improving quality of care, satisfaction among staff members, increased professional collaboration, excellence in practice and improved clinical safety standards in the course of treatment (Wessel, 2015).
Conclusion
Therefore, the goals of relationship-based and patient-centered care are in line with the need for professional collaboration. Collaborative approaches between healthcare professionals and patient-centered care all see the major goal, which is to improve quality of care. As such, the relationship goals between professionals and between professionals and patients all envision the need for better practice to improve quality of care.
References
Bissett, D. (2012). Occupational therapy: Contributions to an acute care pain management strategy. Retrieved March 11, 2016, from Occupational Therapy Now, Volume 14.5: http://www.caot.ca/otnow/sept12/acutecare.pdf.
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.
CIHC. (2010). A national interprofessional competency framework. CIHC. . Vancouver, British Columbia: Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative.
D'Amour, D., Ferrada-Videla, M., Martin-Rodriguez, L., & Beaulieu, M. (2005). The conceptual basis for interprofessional collaboration: Core concepts and theoretical frameworks. Journal Of Interprofessional Care .
Wessel, S. (2015). How to Implement Relationship-Based Care. Retrieved March 11, 2016, from Creative Healthcare Management: http://chcm.com/relationship-based-care/how-to-implement-rbc/.
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