How to write a nursing essay on Interdisciplinary Teams Reflection (Solved)

How to write a nursing essay on Interdisciplinary Teams Reflection (Solved)

The delivery of mental health treatment and care by multidisciplinary teams is among the evidence-based approaches to achieve quality mental health care. Multidisciplinary teams consist of different professionals with expertise in different areas and a combination of their skills results in successful tackling of complex mental health issues (Fleury et al., 2017). These teams usually consist of psychiatrists, clinical nurse specialists, occupational therapists, social workers, and counselors among other disciplines.

Clinical Experience Case

Involuntary long-term hospitalization for individuals with mental illnesses can be challenging due to the complexity of required treatment approaches. Last year, I encountered a case that required interdisciplinary care and awareness of the patient as a whole, including circumstances leading to hospitalization. The patient was a man in his 40s born in Mexico without any intellectual or developmental abnormalities. He was diagnosed with schizophrenia during a 15-year prison sentence following a series of crimes committed in his 20s and 30s. During his release, the prison warden recommended private hospitalization and stabilization before going back to the community.

The patient was uncooperative during his stay in the facility and demonstrated violent behavior to other inpatients leading to isolation. The patient completely ignored the nurses during treatment and it took nearly two weeks for him to allow his pulse to be taken. Because he refused to take medications, a psychiatrist was consulted to offer more insight on the best approaches to managing his condition. The patient’s mother expressed concerns that his son had no option but to stay in the hospital. She claimed that he lacked social skills and could not last long in the community based on his history of crime. After a series of interactions with the interdisciplinary team, the patient set up a personal goal map plotting his long-term goal of having a stable family.

The treatment approach to the patient focused on short-term alleviation of symptoms to allow live well with other inpatients and his community upon discharge. The patient had long suffered side effects of antipsychotics that included oversedation due to his violence, extrapyramidal symptoms, and sexual dysfunction. Together with the psychiatric doctor, we recommended treatment with atypical antipsychotics because they had fewer side effects. A psychologist was involved in the patient’s care to guide in goal setting. Occasionally, a psychiatric social worker was called in meetings to provide insight on social resources to help the patient live by himself. An occupational therapist was consulted to help the patient get back to physical functioning following a series of injuries sustained during his prison time. Eventually, the patient’s conduct became consistent enough to support an action cycle.

Importance of Collaboration

Interprofessional collaboration conveys many benefits to both service users and healthcare professionals working on the teams. Collaboration leads to improved consumer health outcomes, enhanced quality of life, and functioning of patients (Nicaise et al., 2021). Interprofessional collaboration is crucial in addressing the issues related to the cost and utilization of medical services. Additionally, collaboration in healthcare can help to manage patients with complex healthcare conditions that could otherwise have poor outcomes if left to one healthcare professional.

 Lessons Learned

The case of the patient with schizophrenia helped me to appreciate the importance of awareness of the patient’s unique circumstances leading to hospitalization. Taking a comprehensive history and involving interprofessional teams can help achieve outcomes that could be impossible in some patient encounters. This experience taught me about stigma for psychiatric patients, especially those with schizophrenia who most people think cannot be rehabilitated into society. Overall, multidisciplinary approaches can bring solutions to complex problems in mental health care.

 

References

Fleury, M. J., Grenier, G., Bamvita, J. M., & Farand, L. (2017). Relations between mental health team characteristics and work role performance. Plos One12(10), e0185451. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0185451

Nicaise, P., Grard, A., Leys, M., Van Audenhove, C., & Lorant, V. (2021). Key dimensions of collaboration quality in mental health care service networks. Journal of Interprofessional Care35(1), 28–36. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1709425

 

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