The Importance Of Inter-Professional Communication

Amongst all healthcare workers, the correct implication of inter-professional communication is integral in ensuring the best possible outcome for patients. The implication of effective communication between health care team members is just as important to safe, caring and effective patient care as the promotion of therapeutic communication between nurse and patient. Communication is a major part of a nurse’s role and they have to have varied communication skills in order to effectively communicate with the different sorts of professionals that they come across within the health setting. Although, there can be barriers for achieving effective inter-professional collaboration that range from culture barriers to personal beliefs. If these barriers

Berman et al. (2012, p. 522) states that communication is “any means of exchanging information or feelings between two or more people and is a basic component of human relationships”. Communication between health care members, like communicating with the patient, is based on an understanding of communication concepts and techniques such as attending, listening, probing and instructing. However, unlike communication with patients, communication between colleagues is not based on therapeutic communication and the formation of a therapeutic relationship. Rather these relationships are known as collegial relationships.
Deficiencies in communication between health professionals and recommendations for improvement are major findings in many health care quality improvement investigations with communication errors identified as the root cause of 70% of sentinel events in health care setting. Research also indicates that inadequate communication between health professionals and with health care consumers and/or family members is the primary issue in the majority of medication errors, adverse reactions, and near

During handover patient information is passed from one nurse to another often including patient age, diagnosis, tests and procedures, vital signs and significant changes in health status or planned care. Handover has been identified as a time when continuity of care can fail as the receiving nurse may not understand or act upon the information provided. During handover it is important that communication gaps which lead to breakdowns in stability of care, inappropriate treatment and harm to the patient do not occur. Principles for safe and effective handover have been identified by the World Health Organisation. These principles are integrated into health service policies and handover practices between nurses and between health care team members. Use of acronyms such as ISBAR are effective in restructuring the way doctors and nurses communicate patient handover and in increasing patient safety. They play a particularly important role in facilitating communication of critical information to other members of the health care team when the patient is deteriorating and immediate attention and action is required. Doctors and nurses are members of the health care team and both focus on improving patients’ health status and achieving their health goals. Historically, the relationship between a nurse and a doctor in terms of communication patterns implied that the doctor is superior to the nurse and