Interprofessional Communication Care

Communication is indeed a necessity to effectively provide care for patients. Reading Noah’s story from an ENT specialist point of view, there were a lot of communication barriers that could be avoided to prevent this tragedy from happening. I did notice that four of the sub-competencies of the Core Competencies for Interprofessional collaboration practice were not strictly adhered to on the part of the ENT specialist. These sub-competencies are RR6, CC1, CC2 and CC3. Clarification of each team member’s role in providing care to Noah was not communicated well. If there was clear clarification of roles by the ENT surgeon to the other team members Noah would have not been discharged earlier. There was no utilization of any effective communication
tools or techniques by the ENT specialist and the on-call ENT resident. There should have been a proper hand off done between these two colleagues which would have facilitated discussions and interactions that would have resulted in a better pt outcome. Communication between the ENT specialist, on-call ENT resident and Noah’s mother was very poor. There should have been an in-depth discussion and more elaboration on the need for surgery for Noah on the part of the ENT specialist. Critical concerns of Noah’s mother were not addressed and that was very disrespectful, unprofessional and was not a priority. Noah’s mother was pressured to sign documents which most of the time she did not understand. The on-call ENT resident should have also communicated with Noah’s mother in a way that would have painted a better picture of Noah’s symptoms while he was home. Overall there was no common understanding between the ENT specialist, Noah’s mother and the on-call ENT resident in providing the best of care to Noah which could have avoided this sad tragedy.