Communication in Nursing Practice Case Study 2022

Communication in nursing practice
Introduction
The health care profession is composed of a multidisciplinary team working together to
ensure prompt health care. Appropriate communication between the team members is
essential to ensure safe and quality health care for the patients. Improper communication may
lead to unsafe health care for patients. Errors in health care may or may not cause serious
complications, but errors in health care have to be avoided. In the case scenario, two safety
issues were identified. The safety problems are related to communication issues between the
interdisciplinary team. Communication and medication safety are the two issues that are
chosen to analyze to improve the knowledge and skill in nursing practice.
Communication
Communication plays a key role in teamwork. Effective communication between different
health care workers is an essential aspect of patient care. Critical analysis of the case scenario
shows that ineffective communication between health care workers leads to unsafe medical
procedures. Ineffective communication leads to poor teamwork which serves as the major
cause of the unsafe situation for the patients. In the case scenario, verbal communication and
written communication was not implemented to pass on the essential information to the team
members (Bramhall 2014).The health care professionals involved in the case scenario are not
respecting and supporting each other to work on the common goal. The health workers failed
to do the verbal hand over and only the written context can be perceived in a different way by
each person.

In this case scenario, the standard operating procedures and guidelines are present but the
health care worker failed to adhere to the standards to ensure safety and quality nursing care
for the patient. Communication between the multi-disciplinary team works was not executed
abiding by the national safety and quality health standards of Australia. There was a lack of
effective communication between the team members while handling the drug. Important
messages are not clearly communicated between health professionals. Verbal and written
communication is the dual way of communication which strongly confirms the message. In
the case scenario, the team members failed to make a clear verbal communication in clinical
handover (Anderson et al. 2015).The team members could have adhered to the standards and
guidelines of the organization. Strict implementation of verbal and written communication
can prevent errors caused by ineffective communication.
Medication safety
The prevalence of medication safety proves that medication errors are high. The most
common cause of medication errors is ineffective communication, lack of standards and
guidelines to handle the medication, lack of knowledge and skill, and negligence. In the case
scenario, the protocols are essential in the health care professional, because many health care
workers are involved in the care of an individual (Goldspiel et al.2014). Protocols ensure
effective communication and prevent errors in patient care. Protocols aids in improving the
teamwork. Research shows that ineffective communication and poor teamwork are the cause
of adverse events and heightens the risk to patients. Standard practices, protocols, and
policies connect the different health care professionals to work towards common goals
(Wilson et al. 2016).

In the case scenario, the standard practice for the pharmacy not to supply both the IV and IT
medications on the same day. Both the medications are used for chemotherapy, but the route
of the injection varies (Ulas et al. 2015). Administration of both medications on the same day
may cause medication errors. Injection Vincristine has to be administered through
intravenous only. Administration of Vincristine intrathecal leads to disability and death. IT
medications are administered intrathecally (Gilbar, Chambers & Larizza 2105). Health
professionals involved in the Intrathecal medication administration have to train and
registered in IT register. Registering in the IT register confirms the experience and training of
health professionals.
Recommendations for the RN nursing practice
Critical analysis proves that the ineffective communication and lack of medication safety are
the causes for the medication error in the case scenario. The nurse could have adhered to
verbal and written communication in clinical handover. The standards and guidelines of the
organization related to communication promote communication (Lancaster et al. 2105).
Further research on communication issues in health care needs to be executed to ensure
effective communication. Medication safety is the collective responsibility of entire health
care professionals. The nurse is responsible to administer the medication adhered to the
golden rules of medication administration. The nurse is the only health professional who
works closely with the patient and the other health care professionals, so the nurse has to
intervene if she considers that the patient is unsafe.
Clinical governance