The Triad of Care: Synergizing Nursing, Pharmacy, and Laboratory Medicine for Optimal Patient Outcomes

Abstract

Recent innovations within the healthcare field have made the way medicine is practiced unrecognizable compared to just 10 years ago, affected by inter alia, the needs of the patient, the complex and challenging details of chronic illness and the burgeoning body of medical knowledge.  Single person practices wherein the doctor would examine and decipher the illness of a patient alone are now a relic of the past. The healthcare ecosystem and new approach to providing healthcare services is based on the fact that individual health is not attained and cannot be the result of a single health care worker, rather a constellation of several specialists and a coordinated effort and synergy within a healthcare team is necessary. The traditional methods of providing healthcare to patients that operate within boundaries of a single discipline (i.e. 'silos') have proven to be inadequate to meet the complex patient needs of today. Given this and the growing body of literature on interprofessional collaboration (IPC), healthcare systems globally are starting to incorporate collaborative care where healthcare professionals from different disciplines join forces to offer integrated care focused on the needs of the patients.