Interprofessional education is a teaching approach in preparing health care professional students to provide patient care in a collaborative manner. My objective these time is to learn the roles and responsibilities of each team members and how these efforts develop my knowledge, skills, and judgement for future nursing practice. With the guidance of my preceptor, I did shadow and interview of three members of the health care team; physiotherapy, occupational therapy, and pharmacy technician. The main focus of these work is to narrate their roles and responsibilities including difference and similarities between their roles and learn how different profession work together towards meeting the highest quality of care.
First, the duties of Occupational therapy is base on the treatment plan on the specific activities the patient wants to achieve. Treatment includes exercise and stretches, evaluating what accommodations are necessary for the workplace, and suggesting special equipment or mobility aid like braces, wheelchair, and walker. Sometimes they use technical skills too like placing a restraint belt on the wheelchair which I did when I work with them. Physiotherapy is different from the above team member. They develop a treatment plan to restore proper movement for patient base on the dysfunctional abilities and reviewing medical history and complaints. Pharmacy Technician is totally different because they are the only health care provider whose education focuses on medication and their indication and as such, they are critical for optimal drug therapy outcome for the patient. Their role is to perform computer order entry, receive and manage inventory, checking prescription technically and double check with the pharmacist before dispensing and refill in- patients medication.
Second, Occupational therapy, Physiotherapy, and Pharmacy technician offer the opportunity to combine medical knowledge with work to achieve team goal and they are license regulated health care professional. PT and OT work hand in hand for the physical rehabilitation of the patient. Discharge planning almost lies on their hand because most of the patient’s ultimate goal is to go back to activities of daily living safely and comfortably. They usually employed in institutional setting or private practice. Pharmacy technician closely works with pharmacist, nurses, and doctors and usually employed in hospital, clinic and retail store.
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As a student, interprofessional experience fosters specific competency including leadership, teamwork, consensus building, and the ability to define and realize common patient care goal. Communication is the key to effective team functioning. Understanding how to assess team performance and use that data to improve members skills. Leadership is also vital in building an interprofessional team player to meet objectives related to conflict resolution and collaboration or collaborative problem solving. Learning how to point out and address the beginning of team problem and enact a scheme for overcoming these issue are goals that build towards competence in resolving conflict.
Thus, interprofessional education involves educator and learner from different health profession and their foundational discipline to create a learning environment. It needs sharing information, determining professional responsibilities and boundaries and learning about how different profession work together towards to the development of the profession. After the activity, my objective is to learn more about the duties of other health care team member and spend more time working with them to facilitate learning.
