SCHOOL OF NURSING
RN-BSN PROGRAM

COLLEGE
OF
HEALTH
AND
URBAN AFFAIRS

Professional Nursing I: Socialization
COLLABORATION

To e-mail the instructor phillips@fiu.edu

ASSIGNMENT (FOR WEB-BASED ONLY STUDENTS)
Read Chapter 12 (The Nurse as Colleague and Collaborator) in your textbook
Professional Nursing Practice: Concepts and Perspectives and review the handout below.

1. What barriers to collaborative care do you experience in your practice setting?

2. What characteristics support collaborative care in your practice setting?

3. What strategies and approaches could you use to increase collaborative practice in your practice setting?

E-MAIL YOUR ANSWERS TO THE INSTRUCTOR (AT LEAST 100 WORDS).

CLASS HANDOUT

DEFINITION OF COLLABORATION

A collegial working relationship with another health provider in the provision of patient care.
- To provide effective and comprehensive care, nurses, physicians, and other health care professionals must collaborate with each other. No group can claim total authority over the other. The different areas of professional competence exhibited by each profession, when combined, provide a continuum of care that the consumer has come to expect.
A dynamic, interactive process in which clients (individuals, groups, or communities) confer with physicians,
nurses, and other health care providers to meet their health objectives.

FACTORS THAT SUPPORT INCREASED NEED FOR COLLEGIALITY AND COLLABORATION

Consumer wants and needs
Self-help initiatives
Changing demographic and epidemiology
Health care costs
Technological advances

CHARACTERISTICS/BELIEFS BASIC TO COLLABORATIVE HEALTH CARE

Clients have the right of self-determination.
Clients and health care professionals interact in a reciprocal relationship.
Equality among human beings is desired in health care relationships.
Responsibility for health falls on the client rather than on health care professionals.
Each individual's concept of health is important and legitimate for that individual.
Collaboration involves negotiation and consensus seeking rather than questioning and ordering.

COLLABORATIVE PRACTICE

The goals of collaborative practice are to:

Provide client-directed and client-centered care using a multidisciplinary, integrated, participative framework.
Enhance continuity across the continuum of care.
Improve clients and family satisfaction of care.
Provide quality, cost-effective, research-based care that is outcome driven.
Promote mutual respect, communication, and understanding between clients and members of the healthcare team.
Create a synergy among clients and providers, in which the sum of their efforts is greater than the parts.
Provide opportunities to address and solve system-related issues and problems.
Develop interdependent relationships and understanding among providers and clients.

Competencies basic to collaborative practice:

Communication skills
Mutual respect and trust
Giving and receiving feedback
Decision making
Conflict management

Continuum of collaboration (from lowest to highest level of collaboration):

Parallel communication--everyone is communicating with the client independently.
Parallel functioning--more coordination, but each professional has his/her own plan of care.
Information exchange--planned communication, but decision making involves little, if any, collegiality.
Coordination and consultation--midrange levels of collaboration in seeking to maximize the efficiency of resources.
Co-management and referral--upper levels of collaboration where providers retain responsibility and accountability for their own aspects of care, and patients are directed to other providers when the problem is beyond their expertise.

THE NURSE AS A COLLABORATOR

With Clients

Acknowledges, supports, and encourages clients' active involvement in health care decisions.
Encourages a sense of client autonomy and equal position with other members of the health care team.
Helps clients set mutually agreed-upon goals and objectives for health care.
Provides client consultation in a collaborative fashion.

With Peers

Shares personal expertise with other nurses and elicits the expertise of others to ensure quality client care.
Develops a sense of trust and mutual respect with peers that recognizes their unique contributions.

With Other Health Care Professionals

Recognizes the contribution that each member of the interdisciplinary team can make by virtue of his or her expertise and view of the situation.
Listens to each individual's views.
Shares health care responsibilities in exploring options, setting goals, and making decisions with clients and families.
Participates in collaborative interdisciplinary research to increase knowledge of a clinical problem or situation.

With Professional Nursing Organizations

Seeks out opportunities to collaborate with and within professional organizations.
Serves on committees in state and national nursing organizations or specialty groups.
Supports professional organizations in political action to create solutions for professional and health care concerns.

With Legislators

Offers expert opinions on legislative initiatives related to health care.
Collaborates with other health care providers and consumers on health care legislation to best serve the needs of the public.