Addressing Medical Errors: The Need for Interprofessional Collaboration - Essay Sample

Introduction

The contemporary health care environment is faced with serious practice problems that require interprofessional collaboration to address. One of the major global practice problems is medical errors, which, when left unattended, contribute to serious implications for patients. According to Bosch & Mansell (2015), Medical errors are preventable events that result from healthcare interactions. Even though some could not impact the patient at that instance, they are prone to causing long-term consequences in the domain of healthcare. Medical errors are a serious problem to the extent that it accounts for the death numbers in the United States after various cancers. This problem can be termed as most challenging as it is difficult to uncover the root cause of the error, and even though it could be found, it would be impossible to provide viable solutions to minimize the chances of unforeseen recurrent events (Bosch & Mansell, 2015). Interprofessional collaboration plays a critical role in preventing or minimizing the occurrence of medical errors.

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Roles of Each Specialty

Interprofessional teams may comprise multiple workers from a wide range of professional backgrounds, the patient, their family, caregivers, and the community. Each of these individuals plays a critical role in minimizing medical errors. As soon as any of the members miss in a team, performance suffers because of inconsistent communication and collaboration. Various professionals bring to the table their expertise as it relates to the condition. These varieties of disciplines can create an environment with quick detection and correction of errors (Reeves, Pelone, Harrison, Goldman, & Zwarenstein, 2017). The patient is essential in Interprofessional collaboration as they could alert the team in the case of new conditions such as itching, rashes, and skin disfigurement that may cost them their lives. The family is vital in following up on the patient's condition and ensuring that the essential data aligns with that within the institution. Caregivers are essential in ensuring that schedules and events are followed concisely, including taking medication. The working community facilitates change and supports creativity in the healthcare institution (Ahmed, Saada, Jones, & Al-Hamid, 2019). It could offer distinct disciplinary knowledge and perspectives that instil the working concepts of learning and collaboration.

Advantages and Disadvantages to the Team

Every team member plays a critical role in the team. The only disadvantage would be missing out on one of them. Every member is essential when it comes to solving a challenge. Various medical practitioners, the patient, their family, caregivers, and the community contribute to decision-making and problem-solving situations. Having different medical practitioners encourages coordination of care across the continuum of health care (Finney Rutten, Agunwamba, Greene, Mazor, Ebbert, Sauver, & Dearing, 2014). This is advantageous to the team as they could gain new knowledge and work towards a common goal where every one of them learns about the roles and responsibilities of their accomplices.

The patient is the most critical integral of the interprofessional team as they contribute to communication to discourage changes of errors within their care setting. The patient also promotes patient-centered care where their needs are successfully attended to in an effort to reduce medical errors (Finney Rutten et al. 2014). The family is crucial as they also contribute to patient-centered care by offering their preferences, needs, and communicating patient values that are assistive to medical experts to make clinical decisions. Caregivers play a critical role in leading the patient to quality care, especially when patients cannot move as a result of conditions such as stroke. They are the eyes of the team when none is available such as during the night periods. Finally, the community acts as the patient's front line of defense against any potentially dangerous medications (Sweeney, LeMahieu, & Fryer, 2017). They are advantageous in assisting to reduce costs due to medical errors.

Missing Resources or Professions

The primary missing resource is sufficient education in relation to the culture of healthcare. Traditionally, professionals were not used to working collaboratively in various disciplines. Most coordination of care has been less than optimal. According to Etchegaray, Ottosen, Burress, Sage, Bell, Gallagher, & Thomas (2014), little has been done to expose each member of the team to different roles and perspectives. This encourages mistrust, conflict, and miscommunication that add up to poor quality care. Additionally, patients lack the knowledge that they are the most critical factor in the decision-making process as related to their attention (Etchegaray, Ottosen, Burress, Sage, Bell, Gallagher, & Thomas, 2014). Sometimes, there could be resistance to change, exacerbating the occurrence of medical errors. The doctor in the team can positively impact the problem by ensuring that they deliver sufficient knowledge regarding patient care as they are the most educated in that area.

References

Ahmed, Z., Saada, M., Jones, A. M., & Al-Hamid, A. M. (2019). Medical errors: Healthcare professionals' perspective at a tertiary hospital in Kuwait. PloS one, 14(5), e0217023. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217023

Bosch, B., & Mansell, H. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration in health care: Lessons to be learned from competitive sports. Canadian Pharmacists Journal/Revue des Pharmaciens du Canada, 148(4), 176-179. https://doi.org/10.1177/1715163515588106

Etchegaray, J. M., Ottosen, M. J., Burress, L., Sage, W. M., Bell, S. K., Gallagher, T. H., & Thomas, E. J. (2014). Structuring patient and family involvement in medical error event disclosure and analysis. Health Affairs, 33(1), 46-52. https://doi.org/10.1377/hlthaff.2013.0831

Finney Rutten, L. J., Agunwamba, A. A., Greene, S. M., Mazor, K. M., Ebbert, J. O., St Sauver, J. L., & Dearing, J. W. (2014). Enabling patient-centered communication and care through health information technology. Journal of Communication in Healthcare, 7(4), 255-261. https://doi.org/10.1179/1753807614Y.0000000067

Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6), 23-78. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000072.pub3

Sweeney, C. F., LeMahieu, A., & Fryer, G. E. (2017). Nurse practitioner malpractice data: Informing nursing education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 33(4), 271-275. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2017.01.002