Improving Public Health through Interdisciplinary Collaboration: Insights from Nursing, Emergency Medicine and Health Assistant

Abstract

Public health practice is often an intense and fast-paced endeavor undertaken in varied, resource-poor environments, sometimes in the face of disaster, and through multiple communication styles, languages, and perceptions. Disasters, drug shortages, emergent or emerging infections, and shifts in the geography of disease and resource scarcity make collaboration among individuals from different disciplines a global health necessity. To be clear, there will always be individuals collaborating with each other from multiple disciplines, often with ease. However, the benefits of actively structuring efforts and training discussions to better effect that collaboration could be innumerable and should not be overlooked. Ensuring that collaborations, previously arranged or impromptu, among those who don't naturally think the same way, occur can be structured, albeit in a flexible manner.

Methods

We conducted five one-and-a-half-hour workshops with 36 undergraduate nursing, health assistant, and emergency medicine students during their professional path and program management course, which is included within all health profession-specific BA programs. The workshops were built around a modified nominal group technique that used information about the implementation of the Adult Trauma Life Support course and aimed to highlight the benefits associated with improving public health through an interdisciplinary approach. The five main stages of the mNGT are: (1) introduction and explanation; (2) silent generation; (3) round-robin presentation; (4) clarification, highlighting, and ranking; and (5) voting, discussion, and/or consensus.

Conclusion

The potential for nurses, physicians, and other healthcare professionals to improve public health is enormous, but remains poorly tapped. The numerous interprofessional collaborations exemplified by community-academic relationships should galvanize leaders in other communities to seek out equally promising connections in their own. Policymakers faced with major population health problems have a major opportunity in health care reform to bring this potential closer to reality for many of the most needy patients. The synergies of lower costs, improved health, more satisfied patients, and the possibilities of giving a fresh start for communities make the promise of wider-reaching alliances of health care and public health an extremely exciting opportunity for the future of our nation.

1.1. Definition and Importance of Interdisciplinary Collaboration

What is interdisciplinary collaboration? Interdisciplinary collaboration occurs when professionals from different disciplines use a shared theoretical framework and work together with openness to institutional activities to develop best practice methods for providing care to individuals, caregivers, and families within communities. A defining feature of interdisciplinary collaboration is that the practitioners are more open to each other's views and have shared objectives for communally created systems, persons, individuals, and environmental care outcome processes. Interdisciplinary collaboration between nurses, health assistants, and emergency medicine is essential to provide safe and effective high-quality care to persons and families in community health care settings. We, as health professionals, must focus on our point of care practice and patient safety as an important central care issue. Nursing, health assistants, and emergency medicine settings all must take the lead in building the optimal patient system and person group model to focus on and teach how the delivery of care can be optimized. Our role models include developing internships, preceptor-led classes, interprofessional-focused didactic and clinical experiences for both students and our experienced staff. Also, referral strategies for the system to consult with our health professional colleagues and to work as collaborative practice partners.