A STUDY ON COOPERATION AMONG HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONAL AND COST EFFECTIVENESS RELATED TO CLINICAL LOAD ALLOTMENT

2001 Fiscal Year Final Research Report Summary

• Project/Area Number: 10672222
• Research Category: Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (C)
• Allocation Type: Single-year Grants
• Section: 一般
• Research Field: 基礎・地域看護学
• Research Institution: Kochi Women's University
• Principal Investigator: KODERA Eiko KOCHI WOMENS' UNIVERSITY, NURSING DEPARTMENT, PROFESSOR, 看護学部・看護学科, 教授 (20233918)
• Project Period (FY): 1998 – 2000
• Keywords: Clinical load allotment / Cooperation / Multidisciplinary approach / Healthcare team model

Research Abstract

The clinical practice activities provided by healthcare professionals on various clinical units were analyzed and identified based on the nature of the clinical acts, regulations and actual content of the activities performed. The researcher tried to clearly identify practical standards which would differentiate work boundaries among healthcare professionals such as physicians, nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, medical social workers, pharmacists, medical engineers, and clinical test technicians.The research findings showed that such standards did not exist which could be generalized.
For healthcare professionals working at five general hospitals participating in this study, a survey was conducted to probe the frequency, nature and cooperation in performing daily care activities among healthcare professionals. The survey also tried to determine which clinical activities would lend themselves to cooperation in the near future.
Particularly in nursing, the survey also i ncluded another aspects of research. The nurses were asked to decide the complexity of daily care activities and the extent to which nursing expertise is required to perform such daily care activities. The subjects, nurses, clearly indicated that some part of their care activities could be delegated to unlicensed assistive personnel and, that there were a variety of clinical activities that could be effectively and cooperatively performed by other professionals. Therefore, in order for nurses to promote a proper clinical load allotment, care activities should be categorized according to the above mentioned criteria and concrete standards should be set up. To effectively distribute the workload.
This study demonstrated that although a need for a multidisciplinary healthcare approach was emphasized, little interaction in daily care activities was observed among healthcare professionals, except for the fact that nurses were observed having frequent interactions with other professionals and played a core role in patient care.
Factors preventing interaction among professionals on the health care team were also identified : lack of recognition of patient centered care, improper recognition of the expertise of other healthcare professionals, and lack of a work environment that promoted interactions among professional. These factors also provided direction for how we would move toward implementation of multidisciplinary healthcare teams.
Based upon the study findings, the researcher has suggested a healthcare team model that would enable professionals to cooperatively allocate clinical activities among the various healthcare professionals. Consideration would be given to quality assurance, efficiency and cost effectiveness of patient care services after an comprehensive review of clinical activities on clinical units.