Abstract:

Due to the aging of the population, today's health professionals deal increasingly more with the health problems of the elderly, also including chronic diseases. Providing efficient and high-quality patient care is a complex activity which requires effective cooperation of different specialists. However, research shows that this cooperation can often be problematic. Interprofessional education (IPE) offers a possible way to improve interprofessional collaboration and patient care. (Reeves et al., 2013). In the health care system, one of the important areas of cooperation in the health care system is the cooperation between nurses and care workers (Chan et al., 2010).

The problems of clients/patients contain increasing challenges and are multifaceted. In order to solve and mitigate the problems, the cooperation between different specialists, diversification of services and networking of services is needed. In order to help the patient/client in a timely manner and taking into account his/her needs, it is necessary to spot the problem early and intervene. The cooperation of professionals in different fields has shown effectiveness in improving the client's well-being. Different professions are constantly developing their evidence-based knowledge. With the development of technology the opportunities to use various aids improve. As service opportunities grow the need for the resources increases: it is necessary to involve representatives of various professions who can offer help from their perspective. Stronger cooperation between nurses and care workers would provide an opportunity to offer patients/clients versatile and coherent help and care.

Each health care profession has its own way of describing what a professional knows and how knowledge is applied (Herdman....). Unfortunately, each profession often focuses only on its own professional skills. Less attention is paid to mutual information sharing and to cooperation. The reason is frequently the lack of information about other profession. In order for the professions to also have sufficient information about other fields, joint teaching of people working on different professions has been used.

Nursing care is based on the nursing model, according to which the nursing plan is implemented. Starting from 2023 in Tallinn Health Care College co-education with the care worker curriculum was launched. For this, the NANDA-I Taxonomy (North American Nursing Diagnosis Association International) nursing diagnoses trainings were carried out for teachers of care workers. After that the second course took place in the simulation center as joint practical exercises of nursing students and second-year care worker students.

During the joint learning, the knowledge and practical skills of both professions improved. Care worker students were able to read nursing diagnoses, understand the patient's needs and supported the activities related to the nursing plan . Nursing students defined nursing diagnoses according to patient's needs and involved care worker students in making and evaluating the nursing plan. Nursing students developed their patient care skills by studying together with care workers. Joint training took place before entering clinical practice. After the practice, the effectiveness of the joint training experience will be reassessed.

Keywords:

Nurses, care worker, cooperation.