Communication with Interdisciplinary Team (Nursing)

00:00 So why do we need all of those pieces of professional communication? Well, here's where we're gonna put them into practice, is with the Interdisciplinary Team.

00:09 So, when I'm talking about Interdisciplinary Team, these are all the people that take care of a patient or that player role, so this is very important in the way we communicate, we relay patient information, and also how we get our point across in regards to treatment needs.

00:25 So first, let's talk about our Chaplin.

00:28 That's where we're talking about our spiritual needs within our patient and so holistically, when we're looking at this, this is something we need to make sure that we communicate if my patient has this need.

00:40 This helps with their illness in their disease process and their emotional and spiritual well-being.

00:46 So next, pharmacist. We may not think about how absolutely pivotal they are for us as nursing, but as a pharmacist, we can communicate with them about, "Hey, does this drug interact? Can these be given together?" Also, one thing we underestimate is that pharmacists are able to consult on a patient case and let us know what the best regimen is for that patient, and that takes communication.

01:12 Let's also talk about our therapists. So, here's a prime example.

01:18 I used to work on this drug floor as a nurse and we had physical therapy, occupational and speech therapy.

01:24 They're absolutely pivotal in that patient's care, so we had to work together as a team to talk about, "Hey, I noticed 957 is not swallowing so great, they seem to be clearing their throat.

01:37 I'm worried about them aspirating, can you go see him?" Speech therapy is gonna follow up and we're gonna make a treatment that's best for that patient.

01:45 And of course, there's us as nursing, so not only are we talking about us as our self, but also we've gotta work with the team, we've gotta work with our Charge Nurse, to make sure that if we need assistance, if we need something for our patient, or just the flow of our day get better, so from team member to team member and for administration and for charge nurses, that communication from nurse to nurse is very important.

02:10 Next, let's talk about our health care providers.

02:14 We can't talk about enough how much that we talk through our healthcare providers.

02:19 Us as nurses, we typically see the day to day, basically the day to day experience of the patient, so we need to communicate these changes, these conditions, the patient needs to the health care provider so this can be in the form of medication changes.

02:35 This definitely ca be in the form of patient condition as in vital signs, labs, any diagnostic information or assessment change in details that can occur that our healthcare provider needs to know about.

02:51 Also, we have case managers on our team.

02:55 So, a lot of the times we've had patient situations to where maybe the patient can't afford their meds going home that we may -- you know, I've actually found that some patients don't even have water or food or clothing when they get home, and that's something as a nurse that we can communicate to our case manager to fulfill those needs.

03:15 Let's not forget about our nutritionist.

03:17 So, there are times where we are dealing with patients in the hospital that have altered nutrition abilities -- maybe they're not getting enough caloric intake and the conversation with us and the nutritionist can make a better plan to help those dietary needs.

03:32 So, one other person to think about is our respiratory therapist.

03:36 Thank goodness for respiratory therapist.

03:38 So, a lot of the time we're gonna communicate if maybe the patient's CPAP is not working correctly, maybe we're gonna have the respiratory therapist come help us with a breathing treatment or suctioning a patient through their tracheotomy, so thank goodness for them but they're also another resource that we communicate on the health care team.