Introduction
In the highly charged and fast-paced setting of a hospital emergency department, communication is critical to the welfare of the patients and the standard of their care. When there is a failure in communication during the handover process, this will result in delayed treatment and adverse effects on the patients. Thus, it is crucial to apply evidence-based measures for strengthening communication. It is important to assess the communication within the healthcare facilities to determine the areas that require enhancement. (Ang, W. C. , Swain, N. , & Gale, C. 2013), The purpose of this paper is to identify the communication problems in emergency rooms today, and to present an interdisciplinary solution to these problems, including goals, recommendations, and methods of assessing the effectiveness of the proposed communication improvement plan.
Background and Significance
Interpersonal communication is an important element in emergency departments as it is the foundation of patient safety and quality results. Transfer of patients from one nursing unit to another may cause gaps in communication that results in complications and risks for the patient (Ang, W. C. , Swain, N. , & Gale, C. 2013). The communication problems that are being experienced in the emergency departments are some of the most complex tasks that are accorded to the healthcare workers since they in one way or the other affect the patients’ prognosis (Schull, M. J. , 2005). For instance, poor Hand over communication leads to the delay in the management of the cardiac patients and therefore their prognosis (Holt, C. , 2019). The synthesis of the literature reviewed shows that there is a high incidence of communication failure during emergencies and that call for enhanced communication (Fewster-Thuente, L. , & Velsor-Friedrich, B. , 2008). Therefore, the communication challenges should be solved to strive for the improvement of patients’ results, the decrease in adverse incidents, and the optimization of the work of the emergency departments. Therefore, to identify the theoretical considerations and importance of communication breakdowns in emergency care settings for the creation of more effective interprofessional communication models, it is necessary.
Objectives and Goals
For the purpose of this paper, the primary objectives of the interdisciplinary communication plan in emergency rooms will be characterized by four vectors. First, the plan emphasizes the improvement of the ability of care staff to deliver information during handover and receiving reports of individual patients or groups of patients and passing essential data from one shift to another or from one caretaker to another (J. Bello, P. Quinn, & L. Horrell, 2011). Secondly, it aims at reducing the treatment gap, which results from organisational barriers in communications by eliminating intermediaries to enhance patient care delivery (Oredsson, S. , 2011). Further, the plan aims at addressing medical mistakes emanating from misunderstandings in subprocesses, which would enhance patient care (Sullivan, T. D. & Sheils, D, 1997). To achieve this, the plan outlines standardized communication processes and also encourages collaboration across various health disciplines to support the improvement of emergency care facilities’ communication (Schiavo, R. , 2014). In addition, the plan seeks to address the issues that cause stress with regard to communication among the staff, and deprecated the morale among them (Parry, A. , & Selvaraj, N. , 2023). Altogether, the goals of the interdisciplinary communication plan match the broad goal of effective and efficient communication with the aim of providing on-time, accurate and safe patients’ treatment in emergency departments.
Interdisciplinary Team Composition
The effectiveness of the interdisciplinary communication plan in the emergency rooms will depend on the active participation of members from different fields of healthcare. The major team members include the following: The emergency physicians are crucial team members who help in the assessment of the patients as well as the initiation of their management. Their clinical expertise as well as the ability to make sound decisions when it comes to the management of patients is crucial in determining the right course of action and the right time to take a particular action (Holt, C. , 2019). The nurses are the other important members of the interdisciplinary team since they directly attend to the patients and also help to communicate the patient’s needs to other health care givers (Makic, M. B. , & Bueno, E. , 2016). Due to the fact that they assess and promote the patients’ interests comprehensively, the patients&rs
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