What?
In this workshop, we focused on the concepts of collaborative healthcare and patients expectations. We discussed how and why effective teamwork directly influences the quality of patient care.
The highlight of this workshop was a video on how to be unprofessional in 10 easy steps! This video demonstrated examples of ineffective teamwork and the reasons behind it. Gossiping, trash talking, personal issues, miscommunication, devaluating dietitians, and arguing were a burden to success in effective healthcare service. Unprofessionalism left the patients confused, disappointed, and with mistrust.
Donna, the workshop instructor, stated that the government allocates funds to improve collaborative healthcare system because this is what patients want. Clients need to have trust in professionals working in hospitals and other care centres because they are the ones who are the decision-makers in critical moments.
So What?
Many people staying in hospitals suffer from multiple chronic or acute problems that treatment demands a collaborative approach. In today’s world, healthcare is so complex and treatments are diverse; therefore, it is impossible to treat people in a nondisciplinary and individualized model.
As a collective healthcare approach, everyone is responsible to act professionally and be respectful towards colleagues in a healthcare setting. If everyone brings an emotional baggage into the setting and people fall into dramas and gossips, the objective of healthcare is lost. The patient’s care is the first and foremost objective of all members. Patients put all their trust in us; therefore, it is our job to honour that with quality care and accountability.
Now What?
As a healthcare provider in the future, I think we should have more training in interprofessional collaboration in healthcare since it is key in providing care to our clients. Personally, I think this is one of the areas that I want to invest more time to learn and experience even if I decide to focus on private practice. I understand we all are different and our experiences affect the ways we perceive and act. However, teamwork related skills such as listening, cooperation, empathy, and easy going are all important skills we can learn and improve. I have this quote saved from Chi Cejalvo in FNH 380, which I read very often. It is about listening intently to clients. But, I relate the same principle to coworkers and people I interact with on a daily basis. It says, “Listen and listen to your client! Maybe they just are having a bad day or they just want to talk about what happened to them. Listen and trust what they are talking about. The more you listen, they are going to trust you more and they are more likely to listen to you. Trust your words and be open and accepting”.