Collaboration among healthcare professionals between disciplines is becoming a focus of many medical educational institutions. The implementation of interprofessional programs require a multifaceted system of faculty coordinators and training, standardized assessments, clinical training sites, and administrative support. Nevertheless interprofessional education remains an essential component of the Institute of Medicine’s recommendation for improving health care education.1 As the role of pharmacist expands to different areas of healthcare it is important to ensure that pharmacy students are equipped with the tools to practice in diverse settings in order to collaborate with an array of other healthcare professionals for the purpose of providing top level patient care. The Accreditation Council for Pharmacy Education includes interprofessional teamwork activities among it curriculum requirements in order facilitate safe practices in patient care. Curricula requirements are achieved through classroom based lectures, small group case discussion and simulations, practice site based experiences, and web based coursework and interactions.2 Interprofessional collaboration serves many functions for patient care and this paper will focus on patient care in the context of patients with disabilities.
Many factors of patient care for the average individual can become compromised in the setting of disability. Basic barriers can include communication with individuals who are not able to hear or speak, weighing individuals who are not able to step onto a scale, or moving patients who are not able to ambulate on their own. Other barriers than can affect effective patient care include the set up of the hospital or clinic area in order to make ...
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...ided to them. This disparity could be linked directly to the lack of education and knowledge of this patient population despite the inclusion of cultural competency within the pharmacy and medical curricula. The range of disability spans from physical, to cognitive, to developmental and these categories can be further stratified into those who were born with these disabilities versus those who developed them over time.6
Understanding the culture of disability allows for better patient care and pharmacists are in the perfect position in the community to bridge the gap in care between patients with special needs and the doctors who provide care for them. By recognising the culture of disability educators in health care institutions can expand the curriculum to include one of the most diverse patient populations and therefore help to advocate for their improved care.
Culture and disability takes at its starting points the assertion that disability is culturally created and stands as a reflection of a society’s meaning of the phenomenon it created. This includes the fact that disability is a cultural reality that is both time and place dependent: what disability means is different from one social group to another and different from one historical period to another. (p. 526)
Disability is a ‘complex issue’ (Alperstein, M., Atkins, S., Bately, K., Coetzee, D., Duncan, M., Ferguson, G., Geiger, M. Hewett, G., et al.., 2009: 239) which affects a large percentage of the world’s population. Due to it being complex, one can say that disability depends on one’s perspective (Alperstein et al., 2009: 239). In this essay, I will draw on Dylan Alcott’s disability and use his story to further explain the four models of disability being The Traditional Model, The Medical Model, The Social Model and The Integrated Model of Disability. Through this, I will reflect on my thoughts and feelings in response to Dylan’s story as well as to draw on this task and my new found knowledge of disability in aiding me to become
The experience have had and learnt is that patient handling and movement works are physically demanding. This is because patients differ in weight, physical disability and also the level of co-operation of the patient. This becomes personal concern
The medical model of disability describes fixing and curing impairments as ways that will closer align the individual with normality (Milton, 2004). By placing individual blame on the stigma and stereotype so often associated with straying from the norm, a medical model of disability in society can continue the cycle of ableism though hegemonic normalcy. The standards of normalcy in relation to disability culture are often related to a medical intervention that brings the individuals impairment closer to a societal ideal. The label of normal is determined by a dominant privileged group. The dominant privileged group often spreads the standard of normality through representation in the medical field, media, and
The Medical Model of disability has been the dominant paradigm of conceptualization disability: “For over a hundred years, disability has been defined in predominantly medical terms as a chronic functional incapacity whose consequence was functional limitations assumed to result from physical or mental impairment.” This approach to understanding disability tends to be more descriptive and normative by seeking out to define what is normal and what is not. Consequently, strict normative categories abound, namely the “disabled” and “abled” dichotomy. This model views the physiological difference itself as the problem, where the individual is the focus of that said disability.
Historically, we have been taught that people with disabilities are different and do not belong among us, because they are incompetent, cannot contribute to society or that they are dangerous. We’re still living with the legacy of people with disabilities being segregated, made invisible, and devalued. The messages about people with disabilities need to be changed. There needs to be more integration of people with disabilities into our culture to balance out the message. Because of our history of abandonment and initialization, fear and stigma impact our choices more than they would if acceptance, community integration, and resources were a bigger part of our history.
Deliberate training programs designed to address some possible practice differences in order to inculcate interprofessional team work know how in members of the interprofessional healthcare team will help alleviate the potential confusion that may arise among the team members (Edith Cowan University IPAC program and Alberta Health Services )
Professional collaboration is an important aspect regarding patient safety in the medical field. This is a time when different kinds off professionals collaborate with one another about a patient’s health status and condition. “Specifically, Interprofessionality is a process by which professionals reflect on and develop ways of practicing that provides an integrated and cohesive answer to the needs of the client/family/population…(involving) continuous interaction and knowledge sharing between professionals” (Black, 2014). The collaboration of different professionals allow for a better decision to be made towards the patient’s health outcomes.
Cultural blindness can lead to misconceptions and the inability to treat patients efficiently. Culture, religion, beliefs, values, social economic standings, education, mentality, morals, and treatment are all different from person to person, community, and groups. These barriers can be overcome by treating each patient as a unique individual and seeking to learn about cultural beliefs and differences, without reservations or pre-judgments but with an open and willing mind. These inhibiting barriers can be crossed through acceptance and commonality can be established. Through Patient-centered communication and attentiveness to the patients’ interpretation, discussion of lifestyle and treatment choices in an open and non-judgmental manner, and understanding of patient views, concerns and information needs can lead to cultural sensitivity and appreciation (Dean, R,
It could be said that in modern industrial society, Disability is still widely regarded as tragic individual failing, in which its “victims” require care, sympathy and medical diagnosis. Whilst medical science has served to improve and enhance the quality of life for many it could be argued that it has also led to further segregation and separation of many individuals. This could be caused by its insistence on labelling one as “sick”, “abnormal” or “mental”. Consequently, what this act of labelling and diagnosing has done, is enforce the societal view that a disability is an abnormality that requires treatment and that any of its “victims” should do what is required to be able to function in society as an able bodied individual.
During March 2016, in Stage 1 of the pharmacy degree, I attended a two day work placement in a community pharmacy as part of the Work Based Learning module within the Capability unit. The purpose of Work Based Learning is to increase engagement with learning and to develop skills specific to patient pathways. This will link to Stage 4 of the MPharm course in which the main unit is Patient Centred Care. Therefore, it is imperative that I enhance my patient education skills through my own education.
This report will look at how communities label people with disabilities. It will also focus on how such practices will affect the daily lives of people with mental and learning disabilities. The author will explain in detail the definitions of labeling and disability, and then examine the current legislations set by the government to improve life styles of the disabled people. Comparison will be done on the impact of social and medical models on disability, and on how these models try to explore techniques of inclusion and exclusion . Labeling theories will be discussed and this piece will sum up the debate with a brief summative conclusion.
Unfortunately, I cannot say that I know what it is like to be a minority or struggle with a disability everyday of my life. This assignment opened my eyes to the wide variety of people within my society and helped me try to understand another person’s perspective in life.
French, S. & Swain, J. 2008. Understanding Disability: A Guide for Health Professionals. Philadelphia: Churchilll Livingstone Elsevier: 4
Physical and mental disabilities can present extreme difficulties; disabled people often require assistance in the completion of vital activities of daily living (e.g. showering, housework, walking/climbing stairs, preparing