Interprofessional Collaborative Practice and Nursing Roles

2150 Words9 Pages
Interprofessional Collaborative Practice and Nursing Roles Anna G

Introduction Health care is a continuously changing and nurses must strive to embrace changes as they are the largest providers of health care. There have been many efforts to improve the healthcare system in terms of effectiveness and efficiency. Optimizing human resources using interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is a growing method of practice. The Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC, 2010) defines interprofessional collaboration as the process of developing and maintaining effective interprofessional working relationships with learners, practitioners, patients/clients and families to enable optimal health outcomes. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) may involve many health care practitioners such as physicians, nurses, nutritionists, physiotherapists and pharmacists, as well as others to a lesser extent. Nurses play a vital role in patient care. Physicians and other practitioners may circulate but nurses are always there and therefore play a large role in providing important information to other practitioners. Elements of collaboration include respect, trust, shared decision-making, and partnerships. Using IPC, health care and patient safety can be optimized. Unfortunately, despite many efforts, IPC is not yet a national method. There are many barriers for successful implementation of interprofessional collaborative practice (Virani, 2012). This paper aims to identify the benefits of interprofessional practice, as well as the barriers that prevent implementation of this practice. This paper will then discuss how interprofessional collaborative practice applies to nursing in Canada and Saskatchewan. Elements of Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Interprofessional collaboration involves many

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