Importance of teamwork communication in nursing practice

Ahmed Lateef Alkhaqani

1The Affiliated Kufa University,Najaf oo964,Najaf,Iraq.

Dear editor:

In today’s healthcare system, the delivery process includes many interfaces and patient handouts between several health professionals with further education and professional training levels. As a health care science, nursing focuses on serving the needs of humans as biopsychosocial and spiritual beings. Its practice requires scientific knowledge and interpersonal, intellectual, and technical abilities and skills. This means a composition of knowledge, clinical work, and interpersonal communication. Communication is an essential element of nursing in all fields of activity, including prevention, treatment,therapy, rehabilitation, education, and health promotion. Moreover,the nursing process as a scientific method of exercise and implementation of nursing is achieved through dialogue,interpersonal environment, and specific verbal communication skills. Therefore,effective clinical practice involves several cases in which important information must be clearly communicated [1].

Nurses are the heart of the fundamental strengthening of the health system and the basis of providing basic health services.They bring the care that is centred on people to communities where it is most needed,which helps improve overall health results and the cost-effectiveness of the service. Nurses are generally the first responders to complex humanitarian crises and disasters, community protectors, advocates,communication and coordination experts. Nurse communication skills are crucial but difficult to master them. Successful teamwork is recognized as an essential component of much effective health care,and team training has proven effective in improving teamwork.Consequently, it is important to recognize the capabilities of teamwork in the field of medical education. Unfortunately, there is currently a lack of evidence-based frameworks for effective teamwork,which can be integrated into practice in all healthcare professions and medical education. The everyday challenges of teamwork in the field of health care are identified, and evidence-based strategies are developed to address them [2].

Communication and cooperation are essential to teamwork. When health professionals do not communicate effectively,patients’safety is threatened for several reasons: The lack of critical information, the misunderstanding of information,the uncertainty of telephone orders,and changes in the status that were ignored [3]. Patient safety and effectiveness depend on collaboration among multidisciplinary health professionals to communicate [4]. In a complex, demanding, and dynamic environment, medical providers, need effective teamwork and communication to ensure safe care delivery. Communication failures and teamwork failures are considered to be critical factors in patients’ safety incidents. On the contrary, effective teamwork and communication are indispensable to achieving high-reliability systems and creating a “security culture” that supports the safe provision of patient care "Canadian Patient Safety Institute, 2011" [5]. This article describes the importance of multidisciplinary teamwork nursing staff communication.

Communication between teams in the field of health care is an important process for preventing medical mistakes. According to the“Institute of Medicine” (IOM) report, 70% of medical mistakes are related to teamwork communication, and 30% are related to other factors. The current “Health Information Systems” (HISs) lacks supporting teamwork communication among nursing, healthcare and medical staff. “Error is human” applies to medical errors caused by diagnostics,treatments, and prevention. In the United States, between 30% and 45 percent of patients do not receive adequate medical care[6]. Lack of communication can lead to medical mistakes. These mistakes can lead to serious injuries and unexpected deaths of patients. Medical errors are widespread in today’s health care organizations,mainly caused by communication failures.According to the “Joint Commission, formerly the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCHAO)”, if medical mistakes appeared on the “National Center for Health Statistics”(NCHS) listed of the top 10 death causes in the “United States”, They will rank fifth in the rankings for accidents, diabetes, Alzheimer’s disease,AIDS,breast cancer and gunshot injuries[3,7].Because these diseases are complex, there is a need for specialized care, which has resulted in a multidisciplinary approach to treating patients.

The negative effects of medical errors on the safety of patients are serious problems. Medical errors are a major cause of death in the United States. Almost 100,000 patients die each year from medical errors. According to reports by health accreditation agencies, such as the Joint Commission, poor communication between health professionals is one of the most common causes of errors inpatient care. Studies show that effective communication and dynamic collaboration improve the outcome of patients but that poor communication and collaboration have negative consequences, such as medical errors [8].

Communication is the exchange of information between people,whether expressed or received by language, writing or other means.Communication is a way of sharing ideas, knowledge, and information. The communication lines must be open for a group to work well together.Clear communication means effective information dissemination between individuals. In order for nurses to succeed,they need excellent communication skills. Nurses must communicate with patients and their families in different ways and should do so effectively, compassionately and professionally [9]. Communication between nurses and patients’affects on patient outcomes significantly.This influence can play an important role in patients' health,education, and participation. Good communication plays an essential role in the organization’s efficiency. Consequently, nurses must constantly try to improve their nursing skills, as bad communication can lead to danger and confusion. Increased communication between nurses and health care providers can reduce medical mistakes and affect the outcomes of patients.

When the team coordinates care, it reduces the stress that patients may feel and positively impacts the outcome. Furthermore, teamwork can reduce the number of nurses’ burnout problems. As team members, nurses are not the only care provider and are therefore not fully responsible for patients' health. The patient safety expert agrees that communication and teamwork are essential to providing quality medical services. When all clinical and non-clinical staff effectively cooperate, health teams can improve patient outcomes, prevent medical mistakes,increase efficiency and improve patient satisfaction.Effective communication within the team builds common goals for team members to achieve their objectives. Frequent friendly communications help team members develop feelings of belonging and strengthen their relationships. Their teammates support them to make decisions.

For two main reasons, communication processes between healthcare teams are important. First, quality teamwork communication is associated with the quality and safety of the care system. This allows the team of researchers with the opportunity to solve major social challenges. Second, the health industry provides a means of developing and testing large-scale theories for various team types [7]. Effective communication requires understanding the patient’s experiences. At the same time, nurses need to have the same competence and honesty to understand patients’ concerns.Understanding the patient only is not sufficient, but the nurse must also convey the message that they are understandable and acceptable.It is a reflection of the participants'knowledge,the way they think and feel, and their capabilities [10].

Finally, effective collaboration and communication with nursing teams are key to ensuring the safety and reliability of patient care.Communication defects cause the vast majority of sentinel incidents.Effective teamwork and communication help to avoid mistakes and reduce patients’ risks. Implementation of simple tools and behaviours can significantly improve the safety of patients and the perception of teamwork. The nature of the working environment makes it difficult and challenging to promote effective communications in health care.Nurses trained in communication skills are more confident in communicating effectively with patients. Many nurses prefer to work abroad,which allows them to expand their experience and knowledge.However, nurses who have worked abroad must develop communication skills, cultural knowledge and sensitivity before they arrive.

Recommendation: Effective clinical practice should address the problems of the technology system and address human factors. Good communication promotes collaboration and prevents errors.Healthcare organizations need to assess possible conditions for poor communication and ensure that programmes and channels are introduced to help improve team collaboration. By solving this problem, health organizations have the opportunity to improve clinical outcomes significantly. In the field of medical education,university educators must distinguish between teamwork environments, the competencies required of medical professionals,and the competencies required of trainees.Need the focus is mainly on the teams and relevant competencies encountered by graduates while preparing students with general competencies applicable to the various team environments of health care.