Question

Think back to your most recent time in the clinical setting when another discipline (respiratory, physical therapy, nutrition, occupational therapy) was utilized.
Describe a form of interdisciplinary collaborative care you've seen on your current assigned clinical or work site. Then have a discussion about the following questions:

Who coordinated that care? What was the nurse's role in ascertaining that the care was provided?

Was the patient's outcome met? How or why not? What would you, a novice nurse-leader, have done differently to achieve the patient's goals?

Answer 1

Physical therapists often coordinate treatment plans with doctors, nurses, social workers and occupational therapistsfor the purpose of evaluating and treating disease, injury or illness. As experts in movement and function, physical therapists are also involved in preventing injury.

Nurses provide the physical therapist with copies of the patient's medical records and formal diagnosis, along with any other items that the physical therapist may find useful, such as X-rays. Nurses may arrange when the physical therapist helps the patient, depending on what care the patient is receiving. For example, they may arrange to have the therapist visit the patient in the morning if the patient relays to the nurse that their pain or discomfort is worst at that time. In the case that the nurse is the patient's primary care provider, the nurse may be completely responsible for deciding whether to use physical therapy at all

Therapists often rely on data from the nurse to get a picture of what therapy may be best. For example, some medications may impact blood pressure, so therapists may check with the nurse before making the patient engage in a vigorous activity. They contact the nurse to find out what room the patient is in or whether the patient will need inpatient or outpatient treatments. They may ask the nurse to assist with transporting the patient to the physical therapy room, lifting the patient onto equipment or monitoring the patient's pain level during therapy. After therapy, the therapist checks back in with the nurse to see how the therapy has impacted the patient.

Nurses and physical therapists work together to figure out what new devices or techniques need to be developed to help patients. Nurses, for example, may report a specific kind of physical injury associated with a particular condition so that therapists can address that one issue by designing a new machine.