As an advocate for nurses, we are thrilled to see the collaborative healthcare trend permeate more and more medical facilities.   True collaborative healthcare occurs when there is joint communication and decision-making among all members of a healthcare team, concerning the care and treatment protocols for a patient. This process requires effective decision-making, appropriate staffing, meaningful recognition of each team member’s skills and authentic leadership.

 
For collaborative healthcare to work, all the disciplines involved  – the primary and secondary physicians, the constant care nurses and nurse practitioners, auxiliary services such as social services, rehabilitation services and mental health services  – share equal accountability for creating this collaborative “culture.”
Collaborative teams work and train together in unison and this training fosters mutual respect among the members. Each team member’s unique knowledge, skills and abilities are respected because the team is committed to a common goal: safe, quality care for patients and their families. Team collaboration depends on culture that supports fair, equal and consistent approaches to a variety of care approaches while promoting a safe/fear-free environment.
The benefits of collaboration among healthcare practitioners are plentiful. One hospital, Long Beach Memorial, experienced dramatic reductions in its average length of stay on the respiratory medical floor from 5.8 days to 4.4 days in one yea. Each day, rounds are made by a collaborative staff comprised of hospital, medical and nursing administrative leadership, a pharmacist, a social worker, the case manager, and a member of rehabilitation therapy on each patient who has been in for three days or more. The registered nurse caring for the patient presents the case for the multidisciplinary review, and the team creates three daily goals for the patient.
In collaborative healthcare, the nurse acts with a high level of integrity by giving power and respect to each person’s voice, integrating individual differences and resolving competing interests in order to safeguard each person’s contribution.
Barco’s Nightingales Foundation supports the utilization of collaborative team in every aspect of healthcare.  Such teams serve to not only recognize the professional training and skills of nurses but also elevate their status to peer care giving with the remaining medical staff.
Practices such as collaborative healthcare not only provide better care for the patients and better communication with patient’s families, but also foster a sense of equality among all the team and results in quicker healing by addressing all the patient’s needs at the same time.
We salute those courageous healthcare institutions who have recognized the benefits of collaborative healthcare and are working to acknowledge the skills and expertise of nurses and the role they play in the care of each patient.
~Michael and Frida Donner