Community specialist practitioner's role in enhancing interprofessional collaboration

Community specialist practitioners (CSPs) have the skills to facilitate effective collaboration to the benefit of the patients they serve, as, without effective communication, patient care is compromised. This article aims to consider the different ways in which nurses communicate and collaborate with patients and other health professionals to improve and protect health.

Communication failures can occur at any time along the continuum of care. The negative impact of poor communication can include medical and surgical errors, an increased lack of trust between patient and clinician and financial loss to the NHS resulting from litigation payments (McDonald, 2016). Communication failure is the second largest complaint area cited by service users (NHS Digital, 2020). The importance of possessing communication and interpersonal skills to support person-centred care is highlighted in the code of professional practice and is expected of all nurses from qualification (Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC), 2018). It is further highlighted that advanced skills in negotiation, coaching, teaching and collaborating are core to the role of the CSP (Queen's Nursing Institute (QNI), 2015). Within the Long Term Plan (NHS England, 2019), there is a call to action to prevent ill health through preventative action and health education. Realising the Making Every Contact Count initiative (Public Health England, 2016) requires excellent communication skills to recognise unhealthy behaviours and provide tailored education and health coaching to assist health promotion and collaborate with supporting services in delivering this message.