Collaborating with Human Services Professionals

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Abstract

This essay aims to analyze particular aspects of a psychiatric case involving a woman with three children. The woman presents to a psychiatric clinic with constant fears of something bad going to happen in her life and her children being taken away from her and taken to foster care.

Selection of a Collaboration Professional for Handling Ethical and Legal Issues

The case of this woman in worsening daily and there is a need for improved collaboration between several health workers to salvage the situation, as well as address the legal and ethical issues surrounding the incident. An important person to involve in the circumstance is the Registered Psychiatric Nurse (RPN).

Typically, RPNs are trained and have a comprehensive knowledge of the ethical and legal issues that pertain to psychiatric patients (James & Cowman, 2007). The RPN will manage the client while upholding all the professional code of ethics.

The nurse will be in a position to establish the ethical considerations that were breached and take the necessary legal actions by analyzing the patient closely. The nurse will also perform a series of interviews from the clinic where the patient was initially attended to because RPNs have also been trained to act as patient advocates (James & Cowman, 2007).

The RPNs will be fundamental in helping other health workers understand the ethical requirements, as well as the legal procedures involved when handling a psychiatric patient. If the health workers cannot act, then the RPN will be vital in ensuring the issue is addressed.

The Effect of Quality of Interaction on the Service Provided

The client in question has lots of fears at the point of presenting herself to the facility. As such, the health workers need to act or handle the client in a manner that the woman feels at peace and the fears are driven away. The health providers need to exercise the ethical principles of beneficence, autonomy, justice, fidelity, and veracity in the interaction.

Beneficence, or acts of charity, will help the patient feel safe in the clinic environment. The principle of autonomy will make the attendant allow the patient make her choices. Being just will make the attendant give fair and equal treatment to the clients.

Finally, being faithful, honest, and loyal to the client needs will enable the health provider in optimizing the treatment outcome for the particular patient (Byrne, 2001). Therefore, it is true that a better, friendlier, and faithful interaction between the client and the health provider will improve the quality of service provided and the eventual treatment outcome (Holmqvist, 2000).

The Role of the Professional Responsible for Handling Legal and Ethical Issues Arising from Client Support

The professional who will serve in responding or assessing the legal and ethical issues that may arise when attending to the patient is the RPN. RPNs are ideal for this position due to the training they receive, as well as the comprehensive knowledge they have concerning the legal and ethical issues surrounding psychiatric patients. However, their functions are diverse.

The RPN understands the differences between professional and personal relationships and takes responsibility for ensuring the relationships are maintained. The nurse also acts in a way that protects the integrity of the established relationships (James & Cowman, 2007).

Moreover, the RPN ensures that the vulnerability of the clients is not exploited for the benefit of individual health providers. The nurse also has the responsibility of ensuring one does not engage in any practice that is harmful to the client (Forsyth, 2007).

It is also the duty of the nurse to ensure that the confidentiality of the patient information is protected and works with the relevant legislative bodies to ensure laws that govern the use, disclosure, access, and privacy of personal information is maintained.

The nurse also has a duty to report, in good faith, any unethical or incompetent behavior of other health attendants to the relevant authorities (Forsyth, 2007). Lastly, the nurse ought to uphold and promote all the virtues of the nursing profession. In performing the duties, the nurse should conduct him or herself in a way that reflects integrity, diligence, honesty, impartiality, and reliability (James & Cowman, 2007).

Taking the Lead to Coordinate Service Provision

How I will Initiate Collaboration Strategies

Effective collaboration between different health workers is central to ensuring this client is helped properly. As a counselor and a team leader of healthcare providers serving this patient, I will initiate several measures to ensure cooperation is achieved. The initial step will involve creating forums and opportunities where we can meet as a team and discuss matters regarding our services and the kind of care we provide.

In such discussions, the role of each of the attendant will be clearly stated. It will also be demonstrated how the role links with others and affects the rest. It will be during such forums that I will also emphasize the fact that we also work for the benefit of the patients and the interest of the organization should supersede personal interest in the workplace.

In particular cases, professionals such as the RPNs will be invited to teach us ethical and legal issues that concern our duties and how best we can involve everyone to resolve emerging ethical and legal issues. We will then devise systems that will ensure the integrity of the clients is upheld, and none of the ethical principles is breached.

Communication Strategy

The collaboration strategies that will be initiated will be communicated in the same forums by word of mouth, use of pictorials, charts, and posters that will be made available for any of the concerned parties to access.

Evaluation of the Performance of the Established Strategies

Both the client and any family member attending our clinic will be asked to take part in an interview to provide a picture of the nature of service received. It will help in assessing whether the strategies are working.

References

Byrne, P. (2001). Psychiatric stigma. British Journal of Psychiatry, 178, 281–284. doi: 10.1192/bjp.178.3.281

Forsyth, A. (2007). The effects of diagnosis and non-compliance attributions on therapeutic alliance processes in adult acute psychiatric settings. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 14(1), 33–40.

Holmqvist, R. (2000). Staff feelings and patient diagnosis. Canadian Journal of Psychiatry, 45(4), 349–356.

James, P. D., & Cowman, S. (2007). Psychiatric nurses’ knowledge, experience and attitudes towards clients with borderline personality disorder. Journal of Psychiatric and Mental Health Nursing, 14(7), 670–678.

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