Capella 4030 Assessment 4 : Remote Collaboration and Evidence-Based Care

Student Name

Capella University

Capella 4030 Assessment 4

Prof. Name

Date

Remote Collaboration and Evidence-Based Care

Hello everyone, this is Diljit and welcome to my video presentation today. This video is based on a case scenario which is about evidence-based care that was provided to a patient through remote collaboration. The objectives of this video presentation are to briefly discuss the case scenario, then an evidence-based care plan will be proposed for the situation which will be further explained using the EBP model. Literature findings will be reflected and lastly, some benefits and the challenges of remote collaboration will be discussed along with strategies to overcome these challenges. 

Let’s start the presentation by understanding the concept of remote collaboration in healthcare. Literature defines remote collaboration as communication between two or more people on a team who are away from each other and use various digital communication tools to work together on a specific task. In terms of healthcare, this task is related to a patient and the group of people working together are healthcare professionals aiming to provide effective care to the patient who is physically distant from the healthcare facility (Rojas et al., 2018). 

The Vila Health Scenario of Remote Collaboration

The background for my video is a case scenario that occurred in the Vila Health facility where healthcare professionals collaborated remotely to provide efficient care to the patient. Recently, a pediatric patient named Caitlyn was admitted to the hospital with the complaint of cough and breathing difficulties for which a respiratory therapist was involved in her care.

After basic lab tests, she was diagnosed with Pneumonia. However, Dr. Copeland who was undertaking her care wanted more tests so that a definite diagnosis is established. She asked Virginia, a pediatric nurse to perform a test called sweat chlorine. The test was already conducted and the results were out which showed that the patient has cystic fibrosis (CF) – a very common genetic problem among children which causes thickening of the secretions hence leading to breathing problems. As CF is a long-term condition that is non-curable, it requires extensive preventive measures and immediate treatment for the aggravation of the symptoms. This characteristic of the disease was worrisome for the doctors and nurses because Caitlyn lived very far from the hospital in a hometown with minimal healthcare facilities. Moreover, her parents are working so they might not be able to take care of her as much as she requires. 

Since Caitlyn’s disease can be life-threatening for her, the respiratory therapist suggested training the patient’s parents regarding respiratory exercises and suctioning methods. She decided to go beyond the job timings and give her mother extra classes through a digital tool (Skype). Furthermore, it was required to inform the hospital in Caitlyn’s hometown about this deadly condition. Dr. Copeland and nurse Virginia decided to remotely collaborate with the doctors and nurses in another hospital to immediately treat if any complications occurs. This remote collaboration was conducted through telemedicine and important numbers was shared for immediate interaction. 

In this scenario, we can see that some of the health conditions can be high-risk for patients which if not addressed immediately can lead to severe complications and death. This scenario of Caitlyn encourages the need for evidence-based care plans to provide efficient care to the patients ensuring their safety and fulfillment of health needs. 

Proposal of Evidence-based Care Plan 

As I shared the background of the video presentation, now it’s time to propose an evidence-based care plan for Caitlyn so that her case is managed effectively using the standard plan. These care plans provide a guideline for healthcare professionals to perform specific interventions in particular health problems to ensure that the practice is based on well-researched interventions. Since the pathophysiology of CF includes the deposition of thick exudations in the respiratory tract and lungs, it is essential to plan the care to alleviate respiratory symptoms. Literature has shown that the incidence of CF in children is estimated between 1 per 3000 to 1 out of 6000 cases (Scotet et al., 2020).

The registry of the American Cystic Fibrosis Foundation estimates 30,000 CF cases only in the US and around 70,000 cases worldwide. Approximately 75% of CF patients get the disease diagnosed at 3 years of age (Chen et al., 2021). I would like to propose a care plan for Caitlyn which is purposed for lessening the respiratory symptoms, preventing further complications, and reducing future hospitalizations. The care plan includes a) maintenance of adequate oxygenation (Spoletini et al., 2021), b) the use of proper methods to clear the airway (Chaudary & Balasa, 2021), c) reducing the further risks of infection (Lands, 2020), d) and provision of appropriate nutrition (Robinson & Scullion, 2021). 

This plan is developed according to the information and data provided within the case scenario. However, if I had more information on the drugs and technology available at the hospital in Caitlyn’s hometown, it would have been useful in adding advanced research-based treatment modalities to the care plan for the patient. 

Evidence-based Care Model 

Now, let us move to the utilization of the EBP care model for the proposed plan. There are various care models established already but I will use The Johns Hopkins Nursing Evidence-Based Practice model. The model comprises three stages: development of practice questions, researching evidence, and translating those evidence into practice (Schutte et al., 2022). The purpose of this model is to make research easily accessible and incorporate that into clinical practice so that the best decisions can be made for patient care. For this analysis, the practice question that I had was how to care for pediatric patients with cystic fibrosis. Then, I searched the specific terms on various databases (Google Scholar, PubMed Central, BioMed Central, etc) and identified all the findings previously mentioned. Lastly, I created a care plan which will be shared with the healthcare professionals dealing with Caitlyn’s case to implement the interventions suggested. 

Capella 4030 Assessment 4

Once the interventions are successfully implemented, it is essential to monitor the outcomes so that the quality of the plan can be assessed. This scenario should be evaluated to measure the number of hospital admissions required due to complicated disease and the stability of the symptoms should be monitored. The data collected from the evaluation will help to identify positive outcomes and if needed, improvements can be made to achieve desired results for Caitlyn’s health. 

Reflection on the Evidence Collected 

Let me now reflect on the evidence that I collected to develop the care plan. Before I explain the useful evidence, I would like to mention the standard criteria that I used to determine the relevance and credibility of the articles. The CRAAP test, which is an acronym for 5 components – currency, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose is established for researchers to use to identify the most useful, credible, and relevant sources (Esparrago-Kalidas, 2021). The most useful and relevant resource that I found to prepare this care plan was the article by Chaudary and Balasa (2021) which presented techniques effective against airway clearance for CF patients.

I found this article useful because airway clearance is the most important aspect of the disease and this article acts as a guide for healthcare professionals to use appropriate techniques so that patient gets to benefit from it. Moreover, this article fits perfectly on the CRAAP criteria as well as it is currently published in the year 2021, it is relevant to the topic, the authors are healthcare professionals, all the points are well-justified and the purpose of the article is to provide a guide for other healthcare professionals dealing with CF patients 

Benefits and Strategies to Combat the Challenges 

The last part of today’s video presentation is a discussion about the benefits of remote collaboration as well as some of the challenges and strategies to mitigate them will be shared. One of the important benefits that the World Health Organization shares are that telemedicine helps to cover the health issues of the people who live in remote areas where limited access to healthcare is available and they are unable to travel to the cities for their healthcare needs (Johnson & Mahan, 2020). Moreover, the establishment of telehealth tools can be costly however, once it is established it reduces the costs associated with complications of diseases and as well as helps financially deprived people to access healthcare without any costs. Thus, it is cost-effective for the patients and provided patient-centric care. 

Challenges of Remote Collaboration and Strategies to Overcome them

As remote collaboration means communication and care through digital mediums and not physical ones, it is most likely to have various challenges that the healthcare team should address for better patient care. One of the challenges that research identifies is the distance between the team members which leads to poor communication and makes team less interconnected to each other (Yang et al., 2021). Another challenge of working remotely leads interdisciplinary teams to have discrepancies in their decision and ideas (Morrison-Smith & Ruiz, 2020).

I would like to recommend the specific actions against these problems which are found from the literature that healthcare professionals should constantly discuss the updates on the case with each other and should take follow-ups so that distance does not hinder the communication between them. Moreover, the team must accept the differences among each other and a manager should be there to resolve any issues that occur within the team. The interdisciplinary team can be maximally leveraged for the advantage by effectively collaborating, recognizing the expertise and limitations of each other, and should be reminded constantly about patient-centered care and desirable outcomes for the patient’s benefit (Sibbald et al., 2020). 

Conclusion

To conclude this video presentation, I would like to mention that the healthcare world is advancing after COVID-19 thus remote collaboration is becoming common in most healthcare facilities. Although there are positives of remotely helping patients, the drawbacks must be addressed appropriately so that effective care is provided and better patient outcomes are achieved. I hope you would have liked and gained knowledge from my video presentation.

References

Chaudary, N., & Balasa, G. (2021). Airway clearance therapy in cystic fibrosis patients insights from a clinician providing cystic fibrosis care. International Journal of General Medicine, 14, 2513–2521. https://doi.org/10.2147/ijgm.s274196  

Chen, Q., Shen, Y., & Zheng, J. (2021). A review of cystic fibrosis: Basic and clinical aspects. Animal Models and Experimental Medicine, 4(3), 220–232. https://doi.org/10.1002/ame2.12180  

Esparrago-Kalidas, A. J. (2021). The effectiveness of the CRAAP test in evaluating the credibility of sources. International Journal of TESOL & Education. https://i-jte.org/index.php/journal/article/view/25 

Johnson, K. F., & Mahan, L. B. (2020). Interprofessional collaboration and telehealth: Useful strategies for family counselors in rural and underserved areas. The Family Journal, 28(3), 215–224. https://doi.org/10.1177/1066480720934378  

Lands, L. C. (2020). Infection prevention and control in cystic fibrosis: One size fits all? Paediatric Respiratory Reviews, 36, 92–93. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prrv.2020.06.011 

Morrison-Smith, S., & Ruiz, J. (2020). Challenges and barriers in virtual teams: A literature review. SN Applied Sciences, 2(6). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42452-020-2801-5

Robinson, T., & Scullion, J. (2021). Cystic fibrosis. Oxford Handbook of Respiratory Nursing, 285–298. https://doi.org/10.1093/med/9780198831815.003.0010 

Rojas, G., Guajardo, V., Martínez, P., Castro, A., Fritsch, R., Moessner, M., & Bauer, S. (2018). A remote collaborative care program for patients with depression living in rural areas: Open-label trial. Journal of Medical Internet Research, 20(4). https://doi.org/10.2196/jmir.8803

Schutte, D. L., Kisting, M., Warren, C., & Stoneman, M. (2022). Linking hospitals to communities through evidence-based practice. Clinical Nurse Specialist, 36(5), 249–253. https://doi.org/10.1097/nur.0000000000000695 

Capella 4030 Assessment 4

Scotet, V., L’Hostis, C., & Férec, C. (2020). The changing epidemiology of cystic fibrosis: Incidence, survival, and impact of the CFTR gene discovery. Genes, 11(6), 589. https://doi.org/10.3390/genes11060589 

Sibbald, S. L., Ziegler, B. R., Maskell, R., & Schouten, K. (2020). Implementation of interprofessional team-based care: A cross-case analysis. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 35(5), 654–661. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1803228 

Spoletini, G., Watson, R., Lim, W. Y., Pollard, K., Etherington, C., Clifton, I. J., & Peckham, D. G. (2021). Nasal high-flow therapy as an adjunct to exercise in patients with cystic fibrosis: A pilot feasibility trial. Journal of Cystic Fibrosis, 20(5). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcf.2021.03.005 

Yang, L., Holtz, D., Jaffe, S., Suri, S., Sinha, S., Weston, J., Joyce, C., Shah, N., Sherman, K., Hecht, B., & Teevan, J. (2021). The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers. Nature Human Behaviour, 6(1), 43–54. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01196-4 

Capella 4030 Assessment 4