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First Patch.
Professional Understanding

Collaborative practice (Sadler 2004) is at the forefront of health and social care training. For me, like many nursing students, the first steps in collaborative practice were the IPL (interprofessional learning) modules at university. This has been described as two or more professions being taught together as away of cultivating collaborative practice (Caipe. 2010). These modules consisted of student nurses studying different fields, OT’s, radiographers and midwifes. This was the first opportunity I had to meet other professions, who as in any project are the ones who collaborate not the institutions (UKCR 2007). Since then all the IPL modules I have completed have been with adult nursing …show more content…

For staff dedication, increase in patient numbers and satisfaction the team was nominated for a ‘STARS’ award within the trust. Bond (2008) describes a co-operative group who acknowledge each others contributions as a team. Like the fantastic four there was four main staff in the MIU.

It wasn’t till we were nominated for an achievement reward I understood how we were a team. Being a care support worker I initially felt that I was not part of the award, and only agreed to go to the award ceremony as support for my clinical lead. It was him who made me realise that I was an important part of the team

and it made me feel good that I had worked hard and enabled the nurse practitioners to concentrate on their roles.

I had always enjoyed working within the team and now I felt really proud. Maybe the team functioned well because we knew each others roles and responsibilities. Reis and Gable (2003) promotes the need to sustain positive relationships in organisations. I felt we came across as trustworthy and approachable, for a service user this is something a healthcare professional should always be. Like the fantastic four we worked well together.

Davis (2009) suggests a team is group of people linked by a common purpose. The fantastic four, like a multidisciplinary team bring there own unique skills to the mix. Even though there skills are very different they have common goals which motivate them as a team (Adler et al 2003).