¶ … Burzotta, L. & Noble, H. (2011). The dimensions of interprofessional practice. British Journal of Nursing, 2011, 20(5): 310. This article uses the Gibbs reflective cycle to analyze a specific case confronted by a nurse in the field of practice. The cycle includes "description of the event, feelings encountered, the positive and negative aspects of the experience, an analysis of the event, and a conclusion of the overall experience" (Burzotta & Noble 2011: 310). The Gibbs reflective cycle is intended for both nurses and patients to understand the full social and emotional implications of healthcare decisions that are made. The subject of the article, Mrs. Jones, was diagnosed with late-stage breast cancer and was entering into the palliative care process. Mrs. Jones had a small child as well. Despite the severity of her diagnosis, the treatment team focused on addressing Mrs. Jones' psychological, social, and physical needs in a holistic fashion, striving to maintain her independence for as long as possible. The family's needs were addressed by a 'care team' as a whole as well as Mrs. Jones' needs. Interprofessional or interdisciplinary care was vital in treating Mrs. Jones.

Mrs. Jones needed assistance because of her impaired mobility and difficulties with attending to the acts of daily life, but she also required emotional support given the challenges both she and her family were facing. Patients must have advocates within the healthcare system in the form of nurses and other professionals and these advocates must be able to facilitate communication between the patient and outside providers, commensurate with the principles outlined in Gibbs. Interprofessional efforts also require workers to be good communicators with one another (one problem with Jones' treatment team was a lack of follow-up and collaboration of the social worker assigned to her case).

Carrigan, Kate. (2009). Coming of age: The challenges of nursing...

Given that the medical system in Australia is government-run, much criticism has been directed against the government for this discrepancy in funding. Using non-nurses will not solve the problem: workers in aged care facilities must have comparable educations to nurses in other care settings yet the wage gap results in deficits in education and training amongst aged care staff. Personal care assistants cannot be interchangeably inserted into the roles whereby a fully-fledged nurse is required.
Even retaining adequately-qualified nurses is challenging. Staff attrition at care facilities is high -- many nurses move in and out of the required positions -- and having a mix of skills of amongst nursing employees is difficult to maintain on a regular basis on-site. Yet GPs are not interested in spending much time in this sphere of medicine (also due to the low pay), so attracting more NPs is essential in the long-term. Sign-in bonuses, allowing nurses to work as specialists in two facilities at the same time to increase their income, and allowing nurses to charge more are all possible solutions to the problem of low levels of incentives for staff to specialize in this area of medicine. Given that numbers of geriatric patients will be increasing, it is essential that the government address this problem sooner rather than later and fundamental structural changes are enacted so that the current ineffective pattern does not continue unabated.

Morris-Thompson, T., Shepherd, J., Plata, R. & Marks-Marand. (2011). Diversity, fulfillment and privilege: the image of nursing. Journal of Nursing Management 19, 683 -- 692.

The way that nursing…