Need tips/resources for "Working Effectively with Non-nurse staff" presentation

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2005

May I assume that by "non-nurse health care providers" you mean those such as respiratory therapists, social services, x-ray techs, lab techs, speech therapists, etc.? If this is what you mean then an important thing to stress is that a nurse understands what the role of each of these different professionals is and what kind of care they give to patients. The reason this would be important is because a nurse manages her patient's care and when she needs to collaborate with another professional on some problem a patient is having, she needs to know just which one is appropriate to speak with. Part of a nurses role as an advocate of patient care is to be aware of what kinds of services are out there and available to patients.

blaaveispiken · Nov 6, 2005

Thanks so much, that is helpful -- yes that is what our instructor meant by Non-Nurse Health Care Providers. Does anyone know of a good web site or article we can access on the Internet on interdisciplinary care and also descriptions of the roles of the other health care professionals? Also tips on communication when part of an interdisciplinary team. And humor....we want to add some humor to this presentation! Thanks a bunch!!!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2005

Well, that's quite a tall order! I don't know where you could find a listing of all the different healthcare professions except perhaps doing a search on careers in healthcare. Since you only have time for a ten minute presentation you are only going to be able to speak about a few of them. I would suggest you make a larger list on a poster that you can have as a visual aide, but limit your talk to just a few categories and aim them specifically at those in the acute hospitals, nursing homes, or places like free clinics or planned parenthood clinics, adolescent psych facilities or substance abuse/drug treatment and rahab facilities because the type of ancillary healthcare personnel will vary somewhat within each of these environments.

You'll want to discuss the major services offered by each type of professional, how you would contact them to get services, whether or not you need a physician's order to obtain their services (some professionals you can contact without a doctor's order), any special equipment or physical setup you might need to provide for them to do their work with the patient. I guess maybe you'd use the "who, what, where, when and why" kind of approach. Like, when would you want to call in a social worker, what would they be able to do for your patient, etc.

I can tell you off the top of my head who the major ones we have in the acute hospital. That would be social service workers, patient care advocates, customer service representatives, physical therapy, x-ray techs, respiratory therapists, occupational therapists, pharmacists, dieticians, medical records personnel, lab techs, blood bank, neurological techs, EKG techs, EEG techs, home health coordinators (may be nurses), transport staff, volunteers providing a variety of services for patients and nursing staff, security staff, maintenance staff (they sometimes have to come and fix the patient's beds, A/C in the room, etc.), housekeeping, and I'm running out of ideas. You are going to see social service workers in places where there are a lot of elderly or indigent patients and in psych facilities. Just as a thought, you might be able to develop a list of job positions from doing a little cruising around the online career job sites (like Career Builder and Monster) because when you're looking for a job to apply for they always have drop down boxes where they ask you to click on a position in order for their database to search for those job openings.

Hope that helps give you some direction. With only a ten minute presentation you don't want your talk to be too broad otherwise you will lose your audience. I'd check with the instructor to be sure you are on the right track with the subject and approach you are planning to take.

blaaveispiken · Nov 6, 2005

Wow -- that was very helpful!! We are getting together today to work on this -- thank you so much!

Daytonite, BSN, RN · Nov 6, 2005

You are quite welcome. Go be a shining star!

Kelly_the_Great · Nov 6, 2005

Blaaveispiken, "Interprofessional Relations" is a good search term you can use for this particular subject.

Are you going to be using articles?

blaaveispiken · Nov 8, 2005

Yes, we are using articles that we "built" our PowerPoint presentation from actually last night. I think it will be a good presentation and we've included an activity that will also provide some fun instead of....yawn...not ANOTHER presentation...

I will use your hint on searching though and if I find something additionally useful, we may use it. Did you have something in particular in mind by chance?

Thanks!