Open AccessInterprofessional Roles and Collaborations to Address COVID-19 Pandemic Challenges in Nursing Homes
Author(s) -
Yu Jin Kang,
Karen A. Monsen,
Betsy Jeppesen,
Candy Hanson,
Kathie Nichols,
Kelly O’Neill,
Jennifer Lundblad
Publication year - 2022
Publication title -
interdisciplinary journal of partnership studies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2380-8969
DOI - 10.24926/ijps.v9i1.4644
Subject(s) - nursing , medicine , general partnership , pandemic , health care , guideline , action plan , psychological intervention , covid-19 , disease , political science , ecology , pathology , infectious disease (medical specialty) , law , biology
Nursing home experts and informatics nurses collaborated to develop guidelines for nursing homes that revealed partnership principles in action during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article describes efforts to define interprofessional nursing home staff roles within the partnership-based COVID-19 Response Guideline, and to examine changes in nursing practice compared to the pre-pandemic practice of nurses. The qualitative process of identification of nursing home staff roles revealed the extensive scope of interprofessional partnership needed to respond to the pandemic. Using the Omaha System structure, we compared these collective COVID-19 response interventions of Nursing Service roles with nursing interventions of RNs and LPN/LVNs defined in previous nursing home studies. This comparison showed the necessary transformation and collaboration among nurses needed for the pandemic response in nursing homes. The Omaha System Pandemic Guideline is available online and in the Omaha System Guidelines app for immediate use as COVID-19 response practice guidelines and references for interprofessional roles in nursing homes, as well as for multidisciplinary roles across diverse care settings. The guideline is an exemplar of how informatics can facilitate interprofessional and multidisciplinary partnership for nursing homes and other care settings. Future use of the guidelines for decision making and documentation related to infection prevention and control in nursing homes may improve care quality and health outcomes of residents and population.