Multidisciplinary Programs in Health Care

Question: Discuss about the Multidisciplinary Programs in Health Care. Answer: Introduction: Health care is a dynamic field and requires ever changing and ever improving strategies to address all aspects of caring needs of different groups of patients. Progressive research has brought forward myriads of advancements in the health care methods and techniques. With the changing face of health care, the consumer response and expectations are also changing, to keep at par with the demands of the new age group of patients, the health care organizations are changing their end of bargain as well (Brandt et al., 2014). Multidisciplinary practice has emerged in health care stemmed by all this factors, to address the complex needs of the present day patients and their families that too at one stop. Interprofessional practice is at the heart of the modern concept of multidisciplinary health care, it can be defined as a collaborative practice that brings together professionals belonging to different sectors of health care in order to orchestrate a thorough and optimal care profile for patients (Gittell, Godfrey Thistlethwaite, 2013). this integrated approach to health care evaluates the treatment options for the patient and formulates the treatment plan for the patient collaboratively in accordance with the preferences of the patients and their families to ensure that all the different needs of the patients are handled by the experts of the respective discipline and each care priority is given utmost attention without the patient paying an obscene amount for activity or compromising too much of their time (Grol et al., 2013). There are multiple benefits to the inter-professional practice; firstly it can easily cater to all the needs of interconnected health care. It brings together the efficient collaboration of nurses, physicians, pharmacists, physiotherapist, social workers and what not into a single care package for respective patient. This makes the care plan more patient-centred than ever before and increases the patient satisfaction considerably (Lee, 2014). Moreover, patient understanding is very important in complex treatment plans and having a multidisciplinary team at the beck and call ensures that the patients understand the care plan and procedures clearly and the language barrier does not affect the desired outcome. Additionally, the team working atmosphere minimizes the potential of misconduct and the collaborative effort camouflages a lot of gaps left behind by individual care setting. Lastly, multidisciplinary system to health care is fair to the professionals as well as this system distri butes the workload harmoniously among the different team members and bundled payment assures each member is paid justifiably as per their contribution to the care plan (McCrae, 2012). The purpose of a multidisciplinary team is to include the members of different health care background to address different needs of the same patient; therefore a multidisciplinary team will have a lot of members associated with it. The very first group of professionals in the care team should be the physicians, the entry point referral guides; they are the pivotal players in the realm of multidisciplinary care, responsible for the diagnosis and construction of the care plan (Lee, 2014). A multidisciplinary team must also employ different specialist belonging to different disciplines who will serve to be the clinical decision maker and surgeons for patients with complex needs. The next group that demands attention in this discussion are the support care providers, the registered nurses, enrolled nurses and physiotherapists. They are responsible for all communication and interaction with the patients and in carrying out the treatment procedure as directed by the clinical decision maker providing assistance to the patients every step of the way. The next group are the technicians that are tasked with operation of medical equipments and performing pathological tests (Gittell, Godfrey Thistlethwaite, 2013). A process coordinator and resource manager are also a part of a multidisciplinary team with an information communicator in place for conveying all the information to the patient effectively. Clinical practice can be treacherous grounds, where a single mistake can have the potential of harming the health and wellbeing of the patients; it becomes even more crucial for multidisciplinary practice where a single misconduct can land the entire team in trouble. Team collaboration and cooperation is an important contributor to the successful operation of the team and it is crucial that all the team members communicate effectively among each other for the team to function properly (Brock et al., 2013). Lack of communication among the team members lead to confusion and unnecessary complication with medical errors that can threaten the lives of the patient. For example if the physician or specialist do not communicate about the care needs of the patient to the nurses, or if the nurses do not communicate about any complication that may have arose, the care of the patient will be compromised (McCrae, 2012). It has to be considered that the purpose behind the multidisciplinary health care system was to improve the care standards and increase the patient satisfaction, if the lack of communication among the team members intervenes with desired care; it defeats the purpose behind all of this. Moreover, effective communication among the members can eradicate a lot of common confusion and conflict and facilitate optimal delivery of care to the patients. Therefore by establishing a cooperative and respectful professional relationship among the team members by communicating and adjusting with each other this modern concept can take the standard of health care to new horizons (Brock et al., 2013). References: Brandt, B., Lutfiyya, M. N., King, J. A., Chioreso, C. (2014). A scoping review of interprofessional collaborative practice and education using the lens of the Triple Aim.Journal of Interprofessional Care,28(5), 393-399. Brock, D., Abu-Rish, E., Chiu, C. R., Hammer, D., Wilson, S., Vorvick, L., ... Zierler, B. (2013). Interprofessional education in team communication: working together to improve patient safety.BMJ Quality Safety,22(5), 414-423. Gittell, J. H., Godfrey, M., Thistlethwaite, J. (2013). Interprofessional collaborative practice and relational coordination: improving healthcare through relationships. Grol, R., Wensing, M., Eccles, M., Davis, D. (Eds.). (2013).Improving patient care: the implementation of change in health care. John Wiley Sons. Lee, T. H. (2014). The strategy that will fix health care. McCrae, N. (2012). Whither Nursing Models? The value of nursing theory in the context of evidence?based practice and multidisciplinary health care.Journal of Advanced Nursing,68(1), 222-229.