Roles of Different Professionals in Patient Care
In the hospital, there is usually an interplay of different professionals whose agenda however, is to provide the best care possible to the patient. In this assignment, I will analyze a certain case concerning a patient by the name Clive who has gone through several problems. The aim of all this is just to see how the different professionals like occupational therapists, psychiatric nurses and care givers can work together to ensure that Clive who is the patient in this case, is offered the best care possible.
Multi agency is a situation whereby different forces or teams or professionals team up to work in a collaborative manner so as to achieve a prevention agenda. Multi-disciplinary on the other hand is joining together of different disciplines as well as professional specialization in an approach to a certain problem (Poulton, et al.). Like in this case it involves the occupational therapist, psychiatric nurse and the care givers.
For the case of Clive, there are three different professionals that will work together to ensure that Clive’s situation is well managed. The three professionals in this case therefore include the occupational therapist, the psychiatric nurse and finally the care giver. All this three professionals have a unique role to play in the case of Clive.
An occupational therapist is a professional who works with clients to ensure that they achieve a fulfilled as well as satisfied state of life by the use of different activities that are designed to achieve their objectives that can bolster health, prevent injury or development of the disability and finally improving and sustaining on the highest level of independence of the patient (“AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST”). According to this case study, Clive has been admitted in the hospital several times due to injuries sustained after falling. It is the work of the occupational therapist therefore to prevent such occurrences. One concern that has attributed to frequent falling of Clive is the absence of a ramp outside his flats. The Occupational therapist can therefore on ensuring that the ramp is fitted so that Clive does not fall regularly.
A psychiatric nurse is the one who has the obligation or rather is specialized in handling issues to do with mental health. This therefore includes caring for all patients with mental issues regardless of the age or gender. Some of the conditions related to mental illness include schizophrenia, mood disorders, anxiety, psychosis, paranoia, self-harm and finally personality disorders (Carpenter and Hubbard). Nurses under this category receive highly specific training in psychological therapies as well as dealing with very challenging behaviors. According to this case study of Clive, He is widely believed to be totally confused and delusional. This are typical characteristics of mental disorders that need special attention from the psychiatric nurse. The psychiatric nurse therefore has to work in conjunction with other professionals like the care givers and the occupational therapist to ensure the best form of care is accorded to Clive.
Collaboration and Benefits
A care giver is anyone within the social unit that can either be paid or offer voluntary services in relation to help individuals who are either impaired due to their old age or certain disabilities or mental disorders as well. Typical roles for the care giver include taking care of someone who is ill, ensuring adherence to medications, helping them bathe or dress them and assisting them to answer the calls of nature. Care givers can also talk to the doctor on behalf of the patient. According to this case study, Clive is lucky enough to have one care giver who dresses him at night before he sleeps and gets him washed as well. Besides, the care giver also provides food to Clive. This is a good initiative however there was an instance where the care giver failed on duty whereby we are told that Clive resorted to urinating in a bottle. This is not advisable at all.
There are different agencies in this case that include the fire services, the council flat and the hospital agency. Information being shared include the possible ways of preventing accidents like the fire incidence and falling due to lack of the fitted ramps. This information is being shared through meetings as well as visits.
There are several benefits associated with different services especially in the healthcare set up. First of all I will define what each service mean and later on finish by explaining the benefits of how they work together.
Is the operation on a very minimal budget but for the best possible outcome. Despite reduced costs of operation, the services offered should act in the maximum benefits of the patient. This a criteria that is mostly used by hospitals so as to reduce on the expenditure but maximize on the revenues.
In the case of Clive, the psychiatric nurse can work with other professions to reduce costs by making frequent visits to ensure Clive has the best services without necessarily travelling to the hospital. The psychiatric nurse can also do that by sharing ideas with other professions on how to improve the condition of Clive.
Occupational therapist can effectively work with other professions to reduce costs by preventing injuries to Clive so that he does not use a lot of money seeking treatment.
How care givers can work with other professionals to reduce costs.
Care givers can work with other professionals by providing them on the progress of Clive and how he is responding on medication so that they avoid excess costs in buying unnecessary medicines.
Conclusion
2.
how psychiatric nurse can benefit from other professional expertise
As explained earlier, professional expertise are the skills that an expert has. In this case, a psychiatric nurse can really benefit from other professional expertise in many ways. One such way is that they can get information on how to avoid injuries and this expertise can be got from the occupational therapist
The core function of the care giver is to ensure that Clive is well taken care of. However, a care giver can really benefit from the expertise of other professionals like occupational therapists and psychiatric nurses. In this case, a care giver can benefit from the expertise of the psychiatric nurse on how to effectively provide care to patients with mental disorders.
As explained earlier, the function of the occupational therapist is to ensure that the patient does not suffer from any injury. Like in this case of Clive, the occupational therapist should advocate the fixing of ramps at the council flats to prevent Clive from being injured. The occupational therapist can therefore benefit from the expertise of the psychiatric nurse on how to prevent injuries in patients with mental disorders.
Continuity of care advocates that the patient is subjected to quality care throughout the intervention.
In the case of continuity of care, the psychiatric can really benefit a lot.One such way the can benefit is through the continuous providence of services by the occupational therapist. Continuous will at least make the work easier to the psychiatric nurse since there will be constant obligations from each professional.
The function of the occupational therapist is to prevent injuries to the Patient who is Clive in this case. The occupational therapist can therefore benefit from continue of care since he can get that chance to interact with both the psychiatric nurse and the care givers on how to provide the best quality of services to the patient who is Clive in this case.
Since it is the function of the care giver to provide care to the Clive who is the patient, care givers can really benefit by ensuring there is constant contact between the occupational therapists and the psychiatric nurses.
Seamless service is used to imply the pathway that a patient goes through from the time he or she makes the first contact until all the processes are complete.
The core role of a psychiatric nurse in the case of Clive is to enable him go over his mental disorders. The psychiatric nurse in this care can therefore ensure quality services by seeking the progress of Clive from other professionals like the care givers and occupational therapists so that he can know on where to improve on.
The major role of the occupational therapist is to prevent Clive from getting injured. In this case, the occupational therapist can ensure continue of care by seeking information from the psychiatric nurse and the care givers on how best to improve the condition of Clive so that he does not get injured.
The core role of the care giver is to provide care to Clive at home and at the hospital through ensuring adhering to medication, providing food and dressing the patient. The care givers can really benefit from other professionals to continue care by sharing information to both the psychiatric nurse and the occupational nurse on how to effectively give care to patients with a mental disorder like Clive.
References
AUSTRALIAN ASSOCIATION OF OCCUPATIONAL THERAPIST. (2010). Australian Occupational Therapy Journal, 20(2), 107-108.
Carpenter, L. M., & Hubbard, G. B. (2014). Cyberbullying: Implications for the Psychiatric Nurse Practitioner. Journal of Child and Adolescent Psychiatric Nursing, 27(3), 142-148.
Poulton, R., Moffitt, T. E., & Silva, P. A. (2015). The Dunedin Multidisciplinary Health and Development Study: overview of the first 40 years, with an eye to the future. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 50(5), 679-693.