Collaborative Practice Paper
By Tonya Holian
University of Phoenix
Introduction
Collaboration by definition means to work together. With nursing collaboration one works with several disciplines in care of the patient. For collaboration to work well the objectives must be shared; communication must be honest and respectful of all disciplines, and values should be similar. Over all good collaboration should facilitate better patient outcomes. The following will take you through patient X’s admission to the hospital and the collaborative care received during his stay.
Patient X came into the emergency room by EMS. Patient X was found down at home and unresponsive for several minutes. Upon arrival to the emergency room patient X was alert but coded during initial assessment. The collaborative process began when the patient entered the emergency room. EMS had to collaborate with the ER nurses giving report, the ER nurses collaborated with the ER physician and respiratory therapy collaborated with both the ER nurses and physician. The patient was intubated and brought to the ICU. The ER physician collaborated with the pulmonary doctor that was on call and the cardiologist on call. Nurse to nurse collaboration happened when the ER nurse gave report to the nurse on the unit taking the patient and amongst the nurses on the unit to stabilize and settle the patient.
The following morning at the patient care conference the nurse, physician, palliative care, dietary and respiratory therapy met to discuss patient care. Initially the plan was to have an EKG and ECHO done to determine damage to the heart and the pulmonologist would continue to monitor the patient’s respiratory status. Respiratory therapy and the nurse continued to collaborate regarding vent settings based on the patient’s oxygen saturation and blood gas results. During the day the patient became hypotensive and the nurse consulted the cardiologist to have dopamine started to help...