Interdisciplinary teams play a critical role in health promotion based on different medical conditions. An interdisciplinary team comprises of different health and medical professionals with defined and related roles and responsibilities. These include registered nurses (RNs), nurse practitioners (NPs), dietician and nutritionists, and educators on different health conditions impacting individual patients, patient populations, families, and communities (Health Research & Educational Trust, 2018). An interdisciplinary team also comprises of community leaders and social workers interacting with them to understand different issues and barriers to health promotion on management of different conditions like injury prevention among the elderly, diabetes and substance use disorders and abuse (van Rhyn & Barwick, 2019). The interdisciplinary team will also have physicians, especially general physicians who can be at disposal to assess a host of medical conditions for better interventions. The team will also comprise of therapists; physical and occupational therapists with the aim of developing effective and evidence-based practice interventions to prevent injury among the elderly under the program.
It is important to promote the professional role of the nurse to provide health promotion and disease preventive care. Collaborating with other health care professionals and consumer groups in the community in redesigning health care can help meet the goals for Healthy People 2020.
Injury prevention among the elderly requires effective interventions based on the roles and responsibilities played by the different stakeholders. Registered nurses and nurse practitioners are the frontline care providers who will monitor patients and identify possible injuries and risks to injuries because of their health condition and status. Dieticians and nutritionists will offer advice and recommend better diets and foods for the elderly to reduce susceptibility to injuries by increasing their energy levels and other critical aspects of body functioning (Health Research & Educational Trust, 2018). Educators will create and disseminate awareness programs and materials in collaboration with community leaders who understand the types of hazards that can hinder effective education.
Physicians play a key role of assessing and diagnosing the types of injuries that individual elderly patients may be susceptible to and developing interventions based on their situations. For instance, injuries associated with falls among the elderly are more prevalent and physicians can seek information about their frequency and possible course of action to prevent their occurrence. Therapists are important components of injury prevention, especially falls as they perform assessments that evaluate balance, strength, endurance, and different aspects of motion and susceptibility for falls (Cancinotto et al., 2019). For instance, they look at gait steadiness and speed, and conduct tests that offer a foundation for performance. Individual patients and their families are essential members of the team as they can share information and history about potential causes of injuries like falls (Grossman et al., 2018). Many individual patients and their families may ignore previous injuries suffered due to different events, including falls, and it would be critical to get sufficient information to mitigate future susceptibility.
The presentation demonstrates the importance of interdisciplinary team in preventing injuries among the elderly. Organizations and providers at different levels have an obligation to develop interventions through an interdisciplinary team approach that will help reduce susceptibility to injuries due to events like falls among the elderly. The presentation shows that injury prevention strategies allow the elderly to have improved quality of life, better gait, and increased level of awareness on activities to avoid to reduce vulnerability. The interdisciplinary team involves different professionals, patients and their families, and even community leaders for effective implementation of evidence-based practice interventions to reduce possible risks of injuries in different situations among the elderly.
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