ESSAY: Interdisciplinary Collaboration

How can this plan be altered so that it becomes an interdisciplinary plan? In reflecting on the probability that your plan will be successful, discuss the answers to the following questions. (Each of the following five questions is worth two points.)

Discuss the implications of the fact that there is not a quality grocery store near his home and that while fresh produce is not readily available, there is a fast food restaurant across the street from his home.
What about the fact his school has soda and junk food vending machines on every floor and the lunch menu lists pizza as a vegetable?
What about the fact his mother has never learned to prepare fresh fruits or vegetables, has never seen an avocado, and has never been taught how to prepare dinners that incorporate healthy foods?
What about the fact his neighborhood is one in which jogging, running, or walking might not be the safest things to do, and as a result his exercise is highly curtailed?
What is the likelihood that this young man will have a positive health outcome in the years to come if the previous items are not addressed?
Reframing the Case Study: Treatment Options

In this case study, a partnership must be forged not only with other healthcare providers, but also with the school, the child’s mother, community leaders, private corporations, and public health departments.

Discuss the answers to the following questions. (Each of the following four questions is worth two points.)

What kinds of public-private partnerships could you forge to change the access to fruits and vegetables and decrease the potential for disparities based on race, neighborhood, and countless other factors?
What types of partnerships with local government and perhaps private entities might enable members to tear down several abandoned buildings and turn the lot into a park for recreation and exercise for the neighborhood?
What school and community leaders could be approached to eliminate the junk food and soda vending machines from the school?
What research data could you bring to or interpret for a policymaker that would help the policymaker sell the idea to his/her colleagues? (Cite a source, not older than 5 years, for the research data. Attach a copy of the source. No points will be awarded without a correct source.)

ANSWER

Interdisciplinary collaboration refers to the practice two or more individuals from different healthcare fields work together to achieve a common goal such as ensuring that a patient is surrounded by the right conditions and environment to not only give the patient a better and healthier life experience but to also create a better patient outcome for the long-term. An interdisciplinary approach that would work best for the patient would be to refer him to a local nurse or pharmacist who will be in a position to provide him with the necessary healthcare advice, whenever he needs (Markowski, 2018), therefore, reducing the need for him to go to the hospital regularly.

Considering the state of the patient featured in the case study, there are several implications associated with the lack of a quality grocery store near his place of residence. The first being that a lack of access to healthy and nutritious foods reduces the family’s motivation to take better care of their health by watching what and how they eat. Especially when the nearest and most available source of food, is a fast-food restaurant. The family will always end up choosing the fast-food meals since it is convenient as compared to going to a grocery store. As a result of choosing convenience, the patient is likely to experience the same problems that took him to the hospital in the first place. Secondly, the child is most likely to develop the notion that fast food is much better as compared to other healthier types since his body is now completely accustomed to eating that particular kind of food at home and in school. An idea that he will most probably accept and adhere to as he grows older, therefore, further endangering his life.

There are also implications associated with the mother’s inability to prepare healthy meals for him. The son will never get the opportunity to learn how to make these meals and better his health, which he desperately needs to do especially as he gets old enough to live on his own. Also, the mother is choosing to act as an enabler to bad eating habits. Thereby getting her son addicted to eating the unhealthy food she makes available to him daily. Living in a neighborhood that does not provide the safety to jog, walk or exercise in will serve as a deterrent to the patient. Therefore, even if the nurses and healthcare providers that handle his case believe that exercise is important, he will not do it, which in turn further endangers his health in the long run. Secondly, if the neighborhood is not safe enough for him to do these exercises, it means that other people are not doing them, which will also serve as a demotivating factor hindering him from choosing to live a healthy…