Page 84 - APPENDIX B: Trials Investigating the Management of Acute Radiation-Induced Skin Reactions Reading Qualitative Research

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WOUND CARE

interdisciplinary co-ordination, patient allocation and patient flow in the ambulatory care setting.

The sub-theme of Teamwork is explained as RTNs are resourceful with clinical expertise in the

area of skin care and wound management:

For us it’s kind of automatic where I shouldn’t say automatic but it really is more that
we’ve developed strong relationships between the team, whether it’s technologists,
whether it’s doctors or if the dosimetrist has a question about someone’s skin, they’ll
come to us. (P#1)

Another participant summarized the inter-professional relationship as teamwork, “I think they

perceive it as being part of the team in making a decision for the best outcome of the patient”

(P#2). Yet another participant described the inter-professional relationship as collaborative

communication:

I find everyone’s very team oriented. Everyone has and understands and co-ordinate
their area of what we need to do and how we need to promote advocacy for the patient.
Whether it’s collaborating with other colleagues, whether it’s collaborating with the
patient it’s all towards patient centered care. So we all work very well together.
Everyone has a voice. Everyone makes decisions. Everyone will give input depending on
the patient’s needs. (P#4)

In these quotes, patient-centred care—determining what is best for the patient—is in large part

what the team coalesces around. Wound care was further portrayed to have an interdisciplinary

approach, involving the different members of the team as participants’ shared collective

decision-making:

If there was a query or something that, if I really didn’t know, something that was out of
the ordinary, I’d pick up the phone …the wound clinic… so I would consult them and
then I would bring that information back to the team, primarily the radiation oncologist,
run it by him or her and then inform the whole team and then we embark on that and take
it that way. (P# 3)

Although nurses might make primary assessments and recommendations based on institutional

policy, they typically consulted with the radiation oncologist. A participant explained the inter-

professional work: