Reflection of Working Experience

Introduction:

The objective of this essay is to reflect on my experience of working with multi-professional learning set on Team working and Team Roles in connection to service user understanding and the responsibilities and relationships of Health and Social Care Professional. For this essay, I have decided to use ‘’Gibbs Reflective model’’.

The purpose am using Gibbs Reflective model to organise my essay is because it gives a clear understanding and detailed guide on how to write a formative essay through questioning, planning, reactions, feelings, and results.

Gibbs essay also gives the author an opportunity to learn through the experiences by transmitting practical into theory. In this context, I will be using what Gibbs called the three wise men to organise my theory:

• What happened?
• When did it happen?
• Who else was there?
• What were you doing?
• What were the other people doing?
• What was your part in this?
• What part did other people play?
• How did you react?
• What was the result?
• Where were you and Why?

Having gone through the Gibbs three wise men, I will then further my writing with Gibbs Reflective Cycle (1988) which consists of description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, action plan, and overall conclusion.

Description

On the 9th of October 2019, Mrs Lever our course director gave us a tasks base on our learning set to learn how Team working and Team Roles connects with our learning set experience in clinical practice. Team Work and Team Role is referred to as the methodical collaboration of a group of individuals through communication, interaction and information sharing to achieve the same goal (Ramaswamy

et al., 2017). Teamwork is very challenging in the sense that it inspires an individual to work harder in other to keep up with the formidable team. In other words, for a team to work effectively individuals have to do away with ego. We were expected to work with our group; during this time I was 36 weeks pregnant, I became scared, exhausted, anxious and worried. I felt nobody would want to work with me as I was heavily pregnant at a time. Then again, I have never come across these individuals before, all these made me nervous, worried and excited at the same time. I remembered vividly how we started as a team of eight students; everyone was already seated when I walked in to join my group, their reaction when they saw me with my pregnancy was priceless, some were happy while some were very disappointed and worried for me. They almost asked at the same time, are you ok! I said yes while smiling. On the first day of our meeting, we introduced ourselves, had a conversation about our tasks and as well discussed our various professions and how our topic is linked to it. That same day, I suggested that my team should create Whatsapp group chat for easy communication and information sharing, everyone immediately obliged to the idea. This Whatsapp group helped us immensely in a way that everyone was assessable for information sharing and ideas at least for the first three weeks.

My team is made up of eight individuals from different backgrounds, age groups, life experiences, belief, gender and disciplines which mainly consist of Physiotherapist, Radiographers, Occupational therapists, and Operating Department Practitioners this exceptional team was organised and put together by our course leader Mrs. Lever.

We were guided by two spectacular tutors from the start of our essay, to help us with what is expected of us throughout the time of our interprofessional team work learning duration. There was no effective communication afterward which affected our presentation as we ended up rushing to complete our work on the slide.

Feelings/though

I was scared and worried that my team might not like me, because I was heavily pregnant. On the other hand, I was happy as I believed that we were going to learn from each other. I thought I would not be able to participate in the learning set because it was difficult for me to process all the information we were sharing. I was astonished when I found out that half of my team members are parents. Immediately we all connected because we have something in common, and that is family and responsibilities this made us agreed on the importance of time and time management, I felt a sense of belonging and very comfortable. Being pregnant is not a disability and you can achieve just as much as everyone else. On that first day before meeting with my learning set, my emotions were everywhere I was surprised, scared, excited, anxious, happy, nervous and worried. Amongst all my emotions I was more scared and excited.

Evaluation

For the duration of our Interprofessional group, I noticed there was lack of professionalism as some group members were not exactly showing the competence and team role that is an utmost important responsibility of Health and social care professionals. There was a lack of accountability and narrow-minded behaviour. While this was the case, some members were effectively working very hard to bring the team together and facilitate the process.

Analysis

Professionalism, team role, and teamwork are a vital key in health and social care profession (Anthony-Pillai, 2016). At the time of our meetings, while some came late, some team members never turned up at all.

That first day, we tried to structure what we were going to do; we discussed what Teamwork and Team roles entail on healthcare professionals and how we are going to implement it on our presentation, but unfortunately, we could not come up with anything meaningful as we were all confused on how to start the presentation. We had several meetings before concluding on the case study that will help elaborate and give a clear meaning on the effectiveness of Teamwork and Team role between caregivers and service users in the Healthcare sector. We scheduled for a meeting in November 2018 at this point in time I was 40 weeks pregnant and my kids were on half term holidays, so I had no choice but to report to school and be present for the group meeting which I did. My kids were not allowed inside the lecture room with me because they are not insured but my team rescheduled immediately through Whatsapp chat, our mode of communication, then the meeting took place at the ground floor of the school library, where I was asked to spend only 2hours with my kids. That day, we talked about adding videos and role play to our presentation, where some of us will play 5 minutes of movie roles in a case study, we ended up not doing that, I remembered saying that I would love to be in the movie with my 40 weeks pregnancy knowing fully well I could give birth at any time, what was I thinking!.

Then we started researching on our various profession to link our findings with Teamwork and Team role on a case study, this was a difficult time as it took us over 7 weeks to bring individual findings. Things did not go so well as some of our colleagues were on placement, and Joy a key member of our group withdrew from her course. Joy’s withdrawal was a challenging time for us as she was well experienced and a great leader who carried everyone alone but despite this, we did not let this hinder our progress, what we did was to reform the group.

In other to avoid any lapses and setbacks some of us had to work harder than others to be able to fill up the void. Then during our final face to face meeting my term members shared good information’s about teamwork and team role in healthcare, how Occupational therapists, Physiotherapists, Operating Department Practitioners, and Radiographers all work together to achieve one goal and then service users experience at the healthcare. This communication and simple information sharing were very helpful on my first hospital placement. Articulate communication in interprofessional collaborative practice will not only reinforce healthcare but will also build trust amongst healthcare professionals and patients (Burkart et al., 2017). I was able to work in collaboration with Hand therapist; they are specially trained Physiotherapist and Occupational therapist that deals with the hand injury, and arthritis.

With that said, I had the opportunity to work with Rehabilitation therapist as well, in these situation patients came in for exercise sessions, massage sessions, and electrotherapy. The communication, teamwork and team role I practiced with my learning set gave me the confidence to work effectively during my placement; I was highly professional during this time. However, an unexpected incident occurred where a service user and his family members were rude hostile to me unprovoked; my only reaction was I stayed calm throughout the ordeal and reported to the management afterwards. During my placement, I noticed an amazing Leadership style from our Senior Physiotherapist. Mr James, shown an exquisite leadership style as he was always very focused, cooperative with staffs and patients, listening to what everyone had to say including patients, contributed during therapy sessions and always eager to help with good-humoured and empathy.

I was able to work with Mr James during escape exercise sessions for knee and hip replacement patients and he showed excellent integrity, ethical practice towards patients and junior physiotherapist I learned a lot from him. Everyone in the ward was communicating with each other and sharing roles during exercise classes, Physiotherapists in the ward had turns instructing patients on the right exercise to do for their individual problems. Furthermore, the teamwork and team role were exceptional, during back pain therapy, an adult Nurse came in with five elderly patients for a therapy sessions, before we started with therapy session, their records, identity, and X-ray were checked and confirmed to make sure that we had the right patients. With their permission, we started the exercise sessions and at the end, our Senior Physiotherapist recommended Occupational therapist for four of the elderly patients who were still struggling and this was done for the patient to reach their full potential through services that will be rendered to them by the Occupational therapists.

We had a team member named Emile who basically wants to speak for everybody and be the centre of attention, I found that very offensive as is wrong to stop another student opportunity to learn. I was about 39 weeks pregnant at a time and I found Emile treating me differently than other of our colleagues. When I could not content myself, I wanted to speak to her about it but taught, ‘what’s the point, that I rather keep it to myself than escalate it’ with this in mind I made that decision because none of my team members complained about it, despite the fact that I noticed the disgust on their faces. With this experience I was able to understand the negative impact it could cause to a patient if treated differently or not paid attention to and this occurrence helped me highlight all the things I should be aware of when caring for a patient. Another key thing to remember, during my placement I implemented all the experiences that I have had through physical and practical practice with my colleagues. That said, I paid attention to all my patients, listened to them, treated everyone equally regardless of their, background, belief, understand, culture and gender.

Notably, when Joy left the group, Emile took it upon herself to be the group leader unelected. This was when our problem started as a group, there was lack of a communication and organisation. Healthcare professionals are thought differently and they tend to show this through there method of communication. Analyses have shown that self-importance, inadequate structure, and coordination usually impede interconnection and communication among healthcare professionals (Foronda et al., 2016). I was the second person to submit slide on our learning set, emails, and social media contacts, but Emile denied she did not see my work and request that I resend it which I did yet again Emile said she did not receive it. I was devastated and furious as everyone in my group confirmed that I had already posted my work. At this time my baby was barely 6-weeks-old, time was very crucial to me.

Then comes the day of our presentation, Emile sent our work to everyone on our group but refuse to send a copy to me. I ended up not revising anything before the day of our presentation, I felt bad and disrespected but I did not let that affect me on that fateful morning. I kept calm and fully focused on our tasks throughout this ordeal. These unanticipated situations have prepared me for the future and what it’s like to work with a team. Staying calm and composed in a difficult circumstance is a vital quality of a healthcare practitioner and a good approach to patient-centred care (Aiken et al., 2019).

I reminded my team that we should submit our presentation to Mrs Lever for proofreading before our presentation date but unfortunately, we were not able to organise our work for Mrs Lever’s proofreading because some group members handed in their work a day before the presentation. We ended up not planning team role and sharing responsibilities, on who to introduce, elaborate and concluded during the presentation. Working with a group is very difficult because not everyone will agree with your ideas. There was a lot of conflict and disorganisation in my group. One of the most important qualities of health care workers is to be professional at all times, understanding that staying focused and calm is very crucial as people’s life is in your hands and negative reaction or decision could affect your patient. According to The Accreditation Council of Graduate Medical Education, professionalism is one of the six core proficiency of health care practitioners (Davis, 2017).

Between 36 weeks and 41 weeks of my pregnancy, I worked diligently with everyone that was present. Working with a group is very competitive; I learned a lot with the little times we spend together I was able to explore other disciplines which were very helpful at the time of my placement. These experiences have prepared me for the future. As a group, we lacked the aspect of teamwork and team role as we never really spent time together to practice our work. With that said, our marker scored us ‘good’ and also commented that we did not link our work with team work and team role which I believe was true also the marker commented that no consultation with a service user had been used, to help plan the specifics of the patient’s pathway and that was true.

Conclusion

All things considered, I appreciate every journey of our project, they are all teachable moments. I have learned a lot from working with individuals from different backgrounds and professions. This experience came with a positive and negative outcome, as is very difficult to bring all individuals involve together because of different time schedules, engagements and in some situations lack of protectant ethic, some group members did not turn up at all for meetings and presentation.

I have also learned that focusing on task is more important than being complacent, having said that, we started our project in my 36 weeks of pregnancy, some members of my group did not show up at all but nevertheless that did not stop me from working with everyone that was present to be able to achieve results.

Action Plan

In the future, I will definitely focus more on the topic that is giving to us to work on, rather than emphasising on what we were not asked to do. Whenever I feel unsaved at work, I will make sure the incident that led to it is reported to the right authority. If I become a leader in the future, I will definitely make sure that everyone is included and treated equally in my group and I will create ways for effective communication. Good leadership helps to structuralise and solidify a team, communication and having open-mind is a vital skill in a team. Having final checks and balance like rehearsals is very important as it helps the individuals to know what is needed and what is not.

Overall Conclusion

The whole process of my Interprofessional and Collaborative Practice was an extraordinary learning procedure as much as I was under pressure throughout the process I was able to attend all our meetings, met the deadline of submission and as well did my presentation. Having worked with a multi-disciplinary team I have gained more confidence and understand more the importance of Teamwork and Team role. This experience has prepared me to understand what is like to be a Healthcare Professional both the good and not so good incidents are very valuable to me as they are all teachable moments.

References

1. Ramaswamy, F. H, Akinwande O., Ramaswamy, R. S and Tiwari T. (2017) Teamwork and Communication in Interventional Radiology, Journal of Radiology Nursing, 36 (4), pp.261-264. Available from: [Accessed 13 April 2019]. DOI:
2. Anthony-Pillai R. (2016) Medical professional, Medicine, 44 (10), pp.586-588. Available from: [Accessed 10 April 2019]. DO1: 10.1016/j.mpmed.2016.07.001
3. Burkart H., Curry W. A., Fifolt M., Hites L. S., Sandson J. F. and Selleck C. S. (2017) Providing primary care using an interprofessional collaborative practice model: What clinicians have learned, Journal of Professional Nursing, 33 (6), pp. 410-416. Available from: [Accessed 7 April 2019]. DOI: 10.1016/j.profnurs.2016.11.004
4. Foronda C., MacWilliams B. and McArthur E. (2016) Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review, Nurse Education in Practice, 19, pp. 36-40. Available from: [Accessed 9 April 2019]. DOI:
5. Aiken H. L., Jarr?n F. O. and Kang Y. (2017) Pathway to better patient care and nurse workforce outcomes in home care, Nursing Outlook, 65 (6), pp. 671-678. Available from: [Accessed 9 April 2019]. DOI:
6. Davis B., Davis G. K., Dilday C. J., Miller A. E. and Schmitt K. (2018) Professionalism: A Core Competency, but What Does it Mean? A Survey of Surgery Residents, Journal of Surgical Education, 75 (3), pp. 601-605 Available from: [Accessed 9 April 2019]. DOI: