During my two-day experience, I had the opportunity to work with a first-year pharmacy student and first year medical student, as well as some hospital nurses. The several arenas of knowledge that each of us knew most melded together to offer a more comprehensive understanding of the patients' cases. More importantly, our mutual desire to offer whatever form of help we could reinforced the patient’s impression of us, and the significance of our visit. I feel that the biggest accomplishment in WoW was bringing strangers from different academic backgrounds together to find a common purpose and work together in carrying it out without the ‘hierarchical tags’ that can repress, rather than optimize, interprofessional collaboration.
At first, I wanted to meet patients by myself, seeing that at least one of the other students seemed somewhat disappointed by the school on my name-tag upon meeting each other. As we review the medical charts for the day I realized that I could have a more enriching experience learning from my colleagues and teaching them something along the way, as well. I saw what figures they keyed into most, such as high A1C level, and we spoke over our understanding of the patient’s condition. I found that some of the pt education that was shared was as valuable to us, the care team, if not more, because they included new tools that we could implement with some of our future patients, such as ankle-pumping in peripheral edema. Likewise, it was reassuring to see how much our current education overlapped, affirming the level of involvement our professions have in assessing and treating patients, bearing as much of their medical factors in mind as possible.
Conversely, the experienced hospital nurses were more of a culmination of each school off-shooting into more designated areas of learning, seeing that they have information to offer that might be less likely to be discovered from another profession. The knowledge that comes with their role was most commonly used in working with the patient, given that their education was more extensive and our first year of schooling often overlapped in content. Briefing with the floor nurse prior to the session was very informative to the patient’s case and to common themes seen in post-surgical stays; I learned how commonly patients may repress movement to avoid further pain to their body, which can lead to lung consolidation for example, potentially warranting spirometry and diaphragmatic breathing exercises, among other respiratory interventions.
Lastly, the attitudes of the patients were most moving to me. Many of them were undergoing remarkably adverse hardship, and some of them seemed to carry a self-assuredness and contentment that made me question my own views on the limits of human endurance and what cost, if any, it has on quality of life. I admit that I carried some form of ‘pity’ towards one, which led me to overlook some of the sexual insinuations he made towards me, which eventually took the session off-course. That session was a good teaching point in the importance of maintaining self-respect and dignity for one’s self and profession while trying to be ‘selfless’ for the patient. I will be keener on identifying these types of situations ahead of time to keep the session from regressing.