The Nurse's Role in The Interprofessional Team:
As a nurse managing a 5-year-old patient with cystic fibrosis (CF) is a daunting task however brings newer insight every time. While using Chronic Care Model (CCM) in interprofessional setting the approach will need the following aspects:
Communication and Care Coordination:
As a nurse the contact with family of the patient as well as with the entire care team is of fundamental importance. It is necessary that everyone should be on similar page with the treatment and rehabilitation plan. As a nurse provision of regular updates to healthcare team regarding child’s condition is a duty. Any update on the change of treatment plan is communicated to the family. Similarly, the child’s needs must be communicated to the healthcare professionals. The job of the nurse is to also help the families in navigating the complicated healthcare systems, and accessing community resources.
Continuous Feedback:
In order to check if the care plan is effective, nurse should collect feedback from the family and team members and make improvements and changes where needed. It is also necessary to inform the care takers of any ongoing training to stay updated with best practices for CF management and providing holistic care.
Self-Management:
For Liam it is necessary for him to understand his treatment plans. Thus, detailed instructions should be provided to him on his medication administration, airway clearance techniques, and diets. Similarly, his family should let him feel the ownership of his condition. Use age-appropriate language and visual aids for the him.
As for the technique he should know air clearance techniques, e.g. chest physiotherapy, and should know devices like nebulizers. He must be familiar with the steps required for routine assessments to monitor lung function, nutritional intake, and adherence to treatment plans. His parents are provided with “phlo app” to facilitate his symptom tracking. According to Watanabe et al. (2023) Digital health technologies can potentially improve health outcomes with improved medication adherence.
Since Liam is also facing the psychological aspect of this diseases his family should be taken under consideration and counselled that they should be able to address his concerns and help him cope with emotional impacts. He must be able to practice age-appropriate self-management skills like filling in the app to track his progress along with an adult in the family to feel empowered. Educate the family about the impact on the digestive systems and provide dietary guidelines. Provide demonstrations and written instructions and monitor nutritional intake. The family should practice self-monitoring with Liam like sputum check so that he may be able to recognize signs of infection until he feels confident. As a nurse for a child play therapy works wonders and tailored approaches such as use of toys or storytelling to explain procedures and make the process less intimidating can help like letting him hold his favorite toy during treatment.
Community Resources:
For Liam multidisciplinary approach should be taken as a nurse and collaborate with the care team, including pulmonologists, dietitians, and physical therapists. Here in interprofessional setting coordination can assure effective approach. As a nurse partaking in every follow-up and taking notes from the entire care team and then providing the information to his parents is a necessity. Similarly, the list of specialized CF centers should be provided to his parents in case of emergency along with referring the families to social services that provide financial aid and insurance issues. The parents are instructed to form school liaison and work with staff that ensures appropriate access to medicines and physical activities to be modified accordingly with other student patient who also need light sport.
