Introduction
Interprofessional practice is a collaborative process that pulls together medical professionals from various fields with the stated aim of helping improve the health outcomes of a particular patient. To be effective interprofessional practice must involve all stakeholders including government agencies for funding, healthcare associations, and healthcare regulatory systems (Golom, & Schreck, 2018).
Discussion
A prerequisite for any collaboration remains that healthcare professionals must be enough to cater to everyone (Reeves, et al, 2018). A collaboration between medical doctors, therapists, nurses, and pharmacists to implement a personalized plan of care to improve the health outcomes of a patient is an example of interprofessional practice, Within the interprofessional practice, mental health nurses complement the efforts of everyone involved.
Interprofessional practice collaboration has advantages for patients, mental health professionals, healthcare systems, and healthcare organizations (Dahl, & Crawford, 2018). Efficient collaboration among mental health professionals leads to multiple benefits. Some of these benefits include reduced clinical errors, improved patients’ health status, and enhanced quality of care that ultimately lead to increased patient satisfaction (Reeves, et al., 2017). Collaboration also increases work motivation and satisfaction while reducing underlying tensions and promoting teamwork in problem-solving.
Conclusion
Collaboration is also known to reduce staff turnover and promote the creation of a conducive work environment. There are also indications that collaboration could lead to reduced healthcare costs as healthcare organizations improve their service quality and efficiency due to collaboration.
References
Dahl, B. M., & Crawford, P. (2018). Perceptions of experiences with interprofessional collaboration in public health nursing: A qualitative analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 32(2), 178-184.
Golom, F. D., & Schreck, J. S. (2018). The journey to interprofessional collaborative practice: are we there yet?. Pediatric Clinics, 65(1), 1-12.
Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2017). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, (6).
Reeves, S., Xyrichis, A., & Zwarenstein, M. (2018). Teamwork, collaboration, coordination, and networking: Why we need to distinguish between different types of interprofessional practice. Journal of interprofessional care, 32(1), 1-3.