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1. Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay Paper
Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay PaperThe aim of this essay is
to discuss the concept of communication within Interprofessional team, critically analysing
how this could affect collaborative working and with meticulous attention given to two key
points; effective communication in terms of verbal, non-verbal and active listening and the
development of mutual trust and respect.Communication and Inter-professional Work in
Nursing Essay Paper It will endeavour to critically examine the impact these key points and
the impact they have on the dynamics of collaborative working. It will also seek to explore
strategies that may be used to facilitate effective communication and collaboration between
professionals.Modern healthcare is becoming ever complex due to the aging population,
diverse range of co-morbidities and increasing expectations of health service quality and
safety (World Health Organisation, 2011). Hence, there is exerting growing pressure on
health and social care providers to deliver care that is effective thus to meet these demands.
Pollard, Thomas and Miers (2010) advocates that in order for health and social care
professionals to be able to cope with these demand, they have to work together as a team.
For instance, during the hospital stay of a patient , they may encounter numerous
professionals from diverse disciplines such as doctors, nurses, pharmacists, dieticians,
physiotherapists, social workers and many more depending on the patient’s needs,
therefore, professionals will need to collaborate together efficiently as a
team.Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay PaperORDER A
PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERECollaboration requires professionals from different
disciplines in health and social care to work together as a team by sharing of knowledge,
ideas, expertise, resources and responsibility in order to tackle the most difficult health and
social care issues and make effective clinical decisions regarding a patient’s care (ref). In
turn, collaboration also ensures consistency in quality care for their patients, subsequently,
improves services and outcomes (Social Care Institute for Excellence, 2015). However, for
this to occur, effective communication is needed for a successful collaboration to be
achieved (Brock et al., 2013) which is in line with the 6 C’s of care as highlighted in the
Department of Health (2015) guideline. .Communication and Inter-professional Work in
Nursing Essay Paper In agreement, O’Daniel & Rosenstein (2008) insist that communication
forms the backbone of collaborative working and when lacking or incompetent
compromises a cohesive collaborative team.Wood (2004) defines communication as “a
systemic process in which individuals interact with and through symbols to create and
interpret meanings” (p.9). Nemeth (2008) affirms that for communication to transpire

2. between individuals it has to be effective and not the mere fact of interaction, as effective
communication entails the transmission of information uninterrupted that results to
understanding. Effective communication is argued, the key ingredient for the successfulness
of interprofessional collaborative working within health and social care (NHS
Commissioning Board, 2013). Hargestam, Lindkvist, Brulin, Jacobsson and Hultin (2013)
further emphasised that communication is the key factor for the prerequisite for the team’s
structure, collaboration and task performance.Communication and Inter-professional Work
in Nursing Essay Paper Alfredsottir and Bjornsdottir (2008) put forth the notion that where
there is effective communication within a team, there is also good clinical outcomes. Kenny
(2002) also suggests that positive collaboration alongside effective communication ensures
sufficient sharing of valuable experience and expertise, thus, enhances levels of job
satisfaction. In support, Almost et al. (2015) review of positive and negative behaviours in
workplace relationships among healthcare members found that improved communication
and teamwork reduces stress, increases job satisfaction and work performance in turn
enhances communication between team members.Communication and Inter-professional
Work in Nursing Essay PaperJerry (2011) ascertains that there are two major components
of communication used within health and social care; verbal and non-verbal
communication. Verbal communication involves professionals meeting face-to-face in the
form of meetings or over the telephone which are one of the most common and preferred
way of communication. This allows sharing of knowledge and skills, generating common
narrative that draws team together. Jerry (2011) further illustrates that during this phase of
communication, members should speak clearly and directly in a succinct manner while
drawing from their own knowledge, warranting free flowing and efficient information thus
avoiding errors of miscommunication and confusion.Communication and Inter-professional
Work in Nursing Essay Paper On reflection during MDT meetings in clinical placement, each
member was given the opportunity to make critical points that endorsed other members to
bring in ideas and make sound decisions. Browning and Waite (2010) however
acknowledge that active listening plays a major role in verbal communication as it is the
pedigree for a successful interaction, hence sustaining collaborative working among
healthcare professional.ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HEREBurnard and Gill (2013)
further declares that how well professionals communicate is also dependent on non-verbal
communication such as written notes, care plans, letters, maintaining of eye contact during
meetings as they are key factors that enhances or detracts from the way professionals
communicate. Fiske (2011) stresses that where there is lack of listening skills or clarity of
information being transmitted, this often leads to potential conflicts and confusion to arise
as a result of ambiguity or reception of message not being fully understood or
misinterpreted. (ref) supports this stating that, when there is breakdown in communication,
it hinders the efficiency and leads to insufficient information, ambiguous and unclear
information being exchanged between professionals, consequently jeopardising the
dynamics of collaboration. In their qualitative study of multidisciplinary communication at
ward board rounds, Hellier et al. (2015) found that ineffective communication amongst
healthcare professionals correlates with lack of appropriate information being available,
conclusions often not reached and decisions of patients often deferred. A study by Wu et al

3. (2012) suggests that, where discrepancies in the flow of information between professional
were found to lead to misunderstandings and frustrations among healthcare teams which
meant communication and cohesion barriers were formed (Burnard & Gill,
2013).Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay PaperO’Daniel and
Rosenstein (2008) further accentuate that barriers to effective communication may be due
to members from different profession having varied behaviour and language affiliation part
due to training, therefore, sets up the potential for miscommunication. Hence, Lingard
(2012) advocates that poor communication shapes events that impact on professional
working and patients downstream. Nonetheless, Wu et al. (2012) stated that when there is
strong communication within a team, professionals are adequately informed as all members
of a team are kept updated as they are in the loop of the information they need, hence a
standardised common inter-professional language is established (Reeves, Lewin, Espin &
Zwarenstein, 2010).All the same, there is an array of literatures and cases that shows that
communication and collaboration does not always occur in clinical practice. The Joint
Commission (2010) found that an estimated 80% of serious preventable adverse events
stems from miscommunication between caregivers. The detrimental effects of
communication deficiency between professionals were evident in the Mid Staffordshire NHS
Trust report (Francis, 2013). Central to the analysis of the Francis (2013) report was the
evidence of egregious failings of communication between health professionals and
organisations.Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay Paper The
report showed that the quality of information exchange was often poor or failed to be
passed on between hospitals, thereby affecting the way professionals interacted, delivery of
services and patient care (Zwarenstein, Goldman & Reeves, 2009). Devastating cases such
as this illustrates the necessity of optimising communication among Interprofessional
teams.Kenny (2002) illustrates that effective communication is the platform that creates
transparency, encouraging professionals to develop trust, respect and form good working
relationships where communication becomes more open and effective (Burnard & Gill,
2013). This is in conjunction with McDonald, Jayasuriya and Harris (2012) qualitative
findings of the influence of power dynamics and trust on multidisciplinary collaboration of
diverse health professionals. Findings suggest that when effective communication is
established especially through shared experience, technical skills and competence,
opportunities for professional to rapport, gain mutual respect and trust is developed,
thereby, forming alliance among professionals that facilitate cooperation.Result of the
thematic analysis correlates with the author’s own experience observed in the classroom
during Interprofessional education (IPE), as the author was able to work efficiently and
show mutual respects to other students from other health educational sector such as
pharmacy, child nursing and mental health nursing once effective communication had been
established (Keller, Eggenberger ,Belkowitz, Sarsekeyeva & Zito, 2013). This ensured that
task sets out by the lecturer were achieved as everyone took turn to contribute and allowed
ideas and decisions to be rigorously debated. Dixon-Woods et al. (2013) qualitative findings
of culture and behaviour in the English National Health Service (NHS) among physicians,
nurses and administrators accentuated that where there was lack of trust and mutual
respect this led to lack of support, appreciation of individual professional

4. expertise.Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay Paper Findings also
showed that some professionals were not being consulted or listened to which created
conflicts, disagreement and miscommunication (Leonard, Graham & Bonacum, 2004). The
trustworthiness and reliability of the findings within the study is questionable as the
researchers failed to provide full details of the methods used to collect data. However,
findings was consistent with that of Ferlie and Shortell (2001) study which showed that
where there was lack of trust and mutual respect between health professionals, there was
deterrent to quality improvement work and on how well they communicated.ORDER A
PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HEREO’Daniel and Rosenstein (2008) maintain that barriers to
communication that affects collaboration between health professionals can be bridged by
the use of a standardised communication stool.Communication and Inter-professional Work
in Nursing Essay Paper NHS Institute for Innovation and Improvement (2012)
recommended that healthcare professionals implement a standardised approach to
communicate such as the use of SBAR to make certain that information shared is structured
by being concise and focused to maintain consistency of high quality of care. Randmaa,
Mårtensson, Swenne and Engström (2013) prospective intervention study identified that
SBAR improves communication between healthcare professionals, a proportion of incidents
report due to communication errors decreasing from 31% to 11%. The study also
highlighted that the tool sets out expectations between health professionals of how they
should communicate. In terms of the limitation of this study, participants were not chosen
at random which questions the study’s reliability.Communication and Inter-professional
Work in Nursing Essay PaperConclusionEvidence gathered suggests that effective
communication and collaboration is imperative and should be used in correlation
impetuously by professionals, thus to foster high quality care and promote practice to the
highest calibre.Communication and Inter-professional Work in Nursing Essay Paper