Essay On Interprofessional Education

2141 Words5 Pages

Introduction
In today’s health care system it is important that students are educated and are also collaborative practice-ready when working with other health care professionals to achieve consistency, continuous and reliable care for their patients (Wood, Flavell, Vanstolk, Bainbridge & Nasmith, 2009). Interprofessional education is this concept that teaches students to work and learn by effectively collaborating with other health care professionals to maximise their potential as a profession (WHO, 2010). This in turn will teach students to be work-force ready to share his or her professional knowledge whilst understanding and being respectful of others’ work. This strengthens the workforce as it allows health professionals to make quick, informed decisions as it arises resulting in the delivery of the highest standard quality of care to their patients. Interprofessional education and team collaboration plays an important role in overcoming many challenges faced in the health industry. By understanding the concept of interprofessional education and collaboration, this will help to maximise the professionals’ skills leading to the provision of high and effective quality of care to achieve improved health outcomes (WHO, 2010). In order for the health care system to provide optimal and safe patient care, a number of mechanisms can be implemented to achieve this. Team collaboration and effective communication are the two factors that will provide safe and quality patient care (Gum, Prideaux, Sweet & Greenhill, 2012). An environment with a strong, collaborative working culture will reduce the communication barriers and will in turn decrease the conflicts that may arise within patient care.

Communication
Effective communication is one...

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...his common goal, conflicts can be resolved by collaboration (Marshall, n.d.). This is because when people work together they are able to share their views and opinions which encourages them to learn from other members to find a common resolution (Marshall, n.d.).

Conclusion
True collaboration requires effective communication between the team members in a health care environment. This will allow in the reduction of clinical errors whilst maximising patient’s care. In order for this to occur each of the members must have an understanding of each other’s roles so that mutual respect and trust can be gained. With this understanding, the team members are able to work collaboratively to combat conflicts when they arises in the workplace. Educational programs are put in place to provide further support for all staff to ensure that collaboration grows within the industry.

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