Interprofessional Reflection

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The World Health Organization (WHO) defines interporfessional practice in health care as occurring “when multiple health workers from different professional backgrounds provide comprehensive services by working with patients, their families, caregivers, and communities to deliver the highest quality of care across settings.” (WHO, 2010 pp. 7). For my interprofessional reflection I chose to discuss my work experience at Canadian Blood Services (CBS) working as a distribution lab assistant. CBS works with volunteers and patients, and are involved in all steps of blood processing from collection, testing and manufacturing, blood components and stem cells to knowledge and creation of health care research (CBS, 2015). My role at CBS was the distribution …show more content…

Hospitals all over Saskatchewan would fill out an order form and fax the form to CBS and we would send the blood to the hospital as they requested it. This seems like a simple task but there were many times where we did not have the exact product the hospital required and would have to work with other health care professionals to decide what was best for the patients. Due to the fact CBS did not have the supply every hospital needed, this required an extensive knowledge of blood products on the lab assistant’s part to determine what products would be an adequate substitute. Many times the nurses, physicians and MLTs I talked with did not like the idea of a substitute product for their patients, and argued for what they believed was best for their patients. This could become very frustrating, but understanding and collaboration was necessary for both myself, and the other health care …show more content…

MLTs managed the blood bank at larger hospital and nurses managed the blood bank at smaller hospitals. As well, at CBS RNs also collected the blood from volunteers, and the RNs would bring down the blood to my department, and together we would check through the units, and make sure they units were the right size and all units were present. Nurses also had a responsibility to administer the blood to patients at the hospital, and to report back to CBS if there were any adverse reactions. Nurses were also required to work with lab assistants at CBS if they required a unique delivery of blood products. For example, I worked closely with a nurse at a rural hospital to deliver platelets for a cancer patient. This was quite a complex situation because platelets only have a 3-day shelf life, and this hospital had no place to store the product. The nurse and I worked together to develop a delivery plan for the platelets so the patient did not have to go to a larger center away from their home to receive the blood

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