I am currently on my Cardiopulmonary placement in an Oncology Ward and it is here that I have come to realise the benefits of effective teamwork between staff.
This ward can often highlight patients’ misfortunes and times of grief, however these also often become uplifted by the strength and truly heroic nature of other patients. But the one thing that has stood out most since I have started on this prac, is the exceptional teamwork between the nurses, doctors and allied health team.
I started my placement on my supervisors first day on the ward, so we were both unfamiliar with the ward and its workings. The nurses and doctors were extremely helpful in showing us around and helping us out when we needed. We also tried our best to work all our treatments in with the nurses- checking when the patients were due to be showered so we could review their mobility or walk with them, letting them know when we would be walking/ exercising patient’s, ensuring timing of pain medication prior to treatments, notifying eachother of outside appointments (Xrays, CT scans etc) and keeping eachother informed about patients’ general status each day. This system has worked extremely well, as the nurses will now often ask us when we are free to walk a patient to the shower/ toilet, help to transfer them and let us know of any change in a patients status (mobility, chest symptoms) that we may need to review. They will also often ask us how they can help to carry on the benefits of our treatments, such as positioning and reminding patients of exercises. This sort of thing has also been the same with the OTs, dieticians, doctors (where one actually took the time to take me through a chest Xray and showed me a pleural drain procedure) and other team members.
On other pracs I have had, wards often run with everyone in isolation- where the main form of communication is through patient notes. I’ve found all the staff on my current placement to be so helpful and supportive of one another, that not only does it improve patient care but also team morale- which is so important on a ward like this.
The patient’s receive much more thorough care because everyone is aware of each patients’ most current status, which also ensures when patients are discharged nothing has been missed and we can all be confident the patient and their family will cope fine at home.
I think more wards should adopt this sort of teamwork, were everyone is involved and updated on the patients care. It has certainly helped to make our time more efficient- which is so important as time always seems to be precious!
Renae
3 comments:
That sounds like a really good experience of some benefits of working within a hospital setting where the allied health team works in sync towards the same goal. Unfortunately, I had a very different experience of teamwork. I had been given some advice to apply the bandage onto a girls legs tighter than they were presently on to help with pain control- as I was heading to redo the bandages before we were going to do a physio session the nurse went in to do some dressing changes. To avoid too much increase in pain I asked the nurse if it would be too difficult if she could apply the bandage tighter this time which I was just about to do myself. At the time, the nurse didn't seem to have a problem with this. however, a couple of days later my supervisor warned me to watch how I interacted with the nurses- in a nice way not to give my jobs to the nurses (which definately wasn't my intention, as I was prepared to apply them myself but it seemed impractical for the nurses to put them on and then for me to take them off again just to reapply them).
I hadn't realised that it would be inconvenient or inappropriate for them to reapply the bandage as it would be in the best interest of the patient to avoid aggravating their pain levels. Obviously, if their pain levels were too high, they wouldnt be conducive to being mobilised and hence be in hospital for longer.
Sometimes, teamwork doesn't appear to be present in all situations, and yet it seems silly as all allied health members should being working together with the same goal of helping the patients.
That sounds like a really good experience of some benefits of working within a hospital setting where the allied health team works in sync towards the same goal. Unfortunately, I had a very different experience of teamwork. I had been given some advice to apply the bandage onto a girls legs tighter than they were presently on to help with pain control- as I was heading to redo the bandages before we were going to do a physio session the nurse went in to do some dressing changes. To avoid too much increase in pain I asked the nurse if it would be too difficult if she could apply the bandage tighter this time which I was just about to do myself. At the time, the nurse didn't seem to have a problem with this. however, a couple of days later my supervisor warned me to watch how I interacted with the nurses- in a nice way not to give my jobs to the nurses (which definately wasn't my intention, as I was prepared to apply them myself but it seemed impractical for the nurses to put them on and then for me to take them off again just to reapply them).
I hadn't realised that it would be inconvenient or inappropriate for them to reapply the bandage as it would be in the best interest of the patient to avoid aggravating their pain levels. Obviously, if their pain levels were too high, they wouldnt be conducive to being mobilised and hence be in hospital for longer.
Sometimes, teamwork doesn't appear to be present in all situations, and yet it seems silly as all allied health members should being working together with the same goal of helping the patients.
Ive also seen how team work is best where the physiotherapists, occupational therapists, speech therapists and social worker all would have the same patients and have meetings to discuss progress and treatment. This is very important for the team as if the speech therapist of one child is using Makaton (form of hand signals for autistic children) to comunicate and the physio or OT are just trying to use verbal, the child won't respond well to treatment. By working together the speech therapist has taught the OT and physio a few signals making their treatment easier and with more success.
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