multidisciplinary care or clinical collaboration, multidisciplinary collaboration is a
concept that involves teamwork between two or more different professional departments in a
clinical setting. With this kind of collaboration comes collaborative decision-making, where a
patient’s needs are addressed based on a model of shared responsibility in decision-making.
Multidisciplinary collaboration affects clinical decision-making in the form of discouraging
independent decision-making and encouraging interdependent decision-making. The main goal
of multidisciplinary collaboration is to create a decision-making setup that enhances patient
experience, while also fostering a form of equality in decision-making between nurses and
physicians (Olupeliyawa, 2020).
However, since multidisciplinary collaboration is a form of collaboration that involves
professionals from different disciplines working together, there is a need to understand that
decision-making is made collectively with consultations being the main driving force.
Collaboration, innovation, and teamwork in the provision of healthcare services improve patient
experiences in various ways (Czarnecki, 2021). With such a setup, healthcare professionals are
not only able to deliver complicated services, but they are also provided with a chance to learn
new skills at a faster rate.
Not only that, but such a setup also dramatically reduces errors that are known to ruin patient
outcomes while also wasting time which further lowers patient and family satisfaction. That’s in
major consideration of the fact that collaboration eliminates the chances of duplicate effort
which is often coupled with gaps in major areas of patient service, hence resulting in time
wastage that is known to harm patients (Andriessen et al, 2019)
A lack of collaboration in any healthcare services setup will eventually have a detrimental effect
as a result of various reasons. One of the main is that lack of collaboration is directly related to
the absence of team cohesion. When a case relies on multiple professional disciplines to get
solved, a lack of team cohesion means that there will be reduced efficiency in solving the case
or problem.
Not only that, but lack of collaboration can also result in the lack of mutual respect since open
and solid communication will be absent. As a result, professionals often display unhealthy
competitions, defensiveness in their line of work, and ineffective leadership, all of which can
encourage workplace conflicts. With such experiences, poor patient outcomes are definitely
inevitable.
A lack of collaboration in any healthcare services setup will eventually have a detrimental effect
as a result of various reasons. One of the main is that lack of collaboration is directly related to
the absence of team cohesion. When a case relies on multiple professional disciplines to get
solved, a lack of team cohesion means that there will be reduced efficiency in solving the case
or problem.
Not only that, but lack of collaboration can also result in the lack of mutual respect since open
and solid communication will be absent. As a result, professionals often display unhealthy
competitions, defensiveness in their line of work, and ineffective leadership, all of which can
encourage workplace conflicts. With such experiences, poor patient outcomes are definitely
inevitable.
There are various ways through which collaboration between healthcare providers and patients
can be encouraged. Here are five such ways:
(i) Encouraging open and detailed communication between these two parties
(ii) Ensuring that the professionals rely on only one source to keep the patient informed, as that
is less confusing to the patient
(iii) Using the available technology effectively for better outcomes in collaboration
(iv) Involving the patient’s family or someone with a personal relationship with the patient to
ensure a much more comfortable setup while communicating to encourage collaboration
(v) Using multidisciplinary collaboration effectively, since it not only saves time but can also
enhance the patient’s comfort greatly, allowing them to collaborate more efficiently since they
are relaxed and feeling secure.
As a caregiver, every nurse practitioner has the power of communication bestowed upon them.
They can use this power to keep the patient, their family, other caregivers, and involved
healthcare professionals informed about what is going on with the patient. With such
communication, it becomes easy to create a team network where the best interests of the
patient are put in the center.
A nurse practitioner is supposed to be committed to coordinating the functioning of the team
network that they have created, to ensure that the patient gets the best services possible.
Besides, proper communication coupled with a commitment to one’s profession is a contribution
to collaboration, as it assures the involved teams, that the nurse practitioner will always be
available whenever they are required.
In mental health, specialists used to focus on the functioning of the involved professionals as
opposed to centering their services on patients’ needs, which often resulted in poor coordination
between service providers and patients (Lucas et al, 2019).
References
Czarnecki, M. (2021). Nurse Initiated Collaboration and Innovation Lead to Positive Patient
Outcomes. Pain Management Nursing, 22(2), 233. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pmn.2021.02.017
Andriessen, D., Zielhuis, M., Greven, K., van Beest, W., Godfroij, B., & van der Lugt, R. (2019,
October). Seven Ways to Foster Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Research Involving
Healthcare and Creative Research Disciplines. In Dementia Lab Conference (pp. 174- 177).
Springer, Cham.
Olupeliyawa, A. (2020). Collaboration in Healthcare: Implications and Educational Strategies for
Postgraduate Medical Education. Journal of the Postgraduate Institute of Medicine, 6(2).
Karam, M., Brault, I., Van Durme, T., & Macq, J. (2018). Comparing interprofessional and inter-
organizational collaboration in healthcare: A systematic review of the qualitative research.
International Journal of Nursing Studies, 79, 70-83
