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Capella University

MONTH DAY, YEAR

Interview Summary

During an interview, I was able to speak with Dr. Lisa Carter, an advanced practice nurse, who works at Metro Health Center, a renowned urban healthcare facility. Dr. Carter is one of the most experienced workers in the hospital with over fifteen years of practice as a doctor, he supervises a group of people in the hospital’s ED. She is also dedicated with the command of patient care services, supervising a team, and coordinating the application of patient care plans. As we spoke, Dr. Carter described a number of essential issues within the ED: high patient turnover, lack of clear communication, and problems with timely patient management due to poor collaboration between teams.

Dr. Carter gave an understanding on measures taken to reduce such occurrences within the hospital; this includes; trainings from time to time and implementing the use of electronic health records. However, these interventions have not greatly enhanced opportunity to facilitate communication to enhance coordination among the members of the team. She stressed the fact that the organizational culture of the hospital is fairly compartmentalized where different departments function more or less autonomously adding to the communication problems. However, in his response to these challenges, Dr. Carter agreed as to certain benefits that stem from proper interdisciplinary relations especially in the patient cases that present multiple complications requiring inputs from several fields. These observations bear testament to the fact that communication within the ED remains fragmented and requires a more synergistic approach in order to optimize the wellbeing of patients and flow of work.

Issue Identification

The problem defined from the interview is the lack of proper collaboration between the disciplines within the Emergency Department. This problem is evidenced by poor patient access to services, poor communication between caregivers and or team work, and inadequate collaboration between healthcare departments and teams in managing patients’ presentation and treatment. An evidenced-based interprofessional approach is considered suitable for this issue because it demands coordinated efforts from distinct members of the healthcare system to provide patients with prompt and efficient care. Through bridging the gaps within the interdisciplinary approach, the ED has the ability to increase patient satisfaction, address barriers in timely patient flow, and ultimately decrease patient harm resulting from communication failures (Wei et al., 2020).

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

When applied to the ED, Lewin’s Change Management Model proves to be an ideal approach towards handling the problems of communication. The model comprises three stages: Organizational change is a structural process that can be divided into three stages which are unfreeze, change, and refreeze (McCabe, 2020). During the Unfreeze stage, the organization needs to recognize that change is necessary and prepare for it to happen by tearing down communication barriers. This involves sensitization about the losses occasioned by poor flow of information and how integrating communication approach can foster efficiency. For example, sharing of information on how effective communication enhances patients’ experiences is useful in making a change.

In the Change stage, procedural changes include identification of new communication processes and standards, including daily interdisciplinary meetings and shared communication technology. Such changes enhance efficiency in sharing information and breaking down barriers to problem-solving. In the ED, this could mean switch to a centralized EHR system, where all the members of a clinical team can view and edit the information related to the patient at the same time thus, avoiding delays and misunderstandings.

The last of these stages is the Refreeze stage where the new communication practices that have been implemented are cemented into the organization. This includes reminding the organizational members of the change, offering frequent training, auditing and other feedback actions, so that the new behaviors become part of the organizational culture. Lewin’s model is valuable in this context as it has an overall framework for implementing change and distinguishing between the techniques that effectively manage the resistance and the ones that successfully maintain the change in the long run (McCabe, 2020).

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Transformational Leadership is a strategic leadership style that can best fit to be applied to solve the communication issues common in the ED. Transformational leaders engage and unlock the potential of their followers by painting the image of the future, challenging their followers, and by instilling feelings of mission and purpose (Northouse, 2021). Through outlining specific plans for enhancing such cooperation, a transformational leader manages to engage the employees into adopting new patterns of sharing information and striving for shared objectives.

Promoting innovation is another significance factor that transformational leadership entails. Managers can effectively foster a culture of innovation among the employees and allow the staff to brainstorm and implement solutions to existing communication challenges. It might include creating new enabling structures such as an instrument that can improve the flow of information between one department and the other. For instance, the implementation of technology that can enable effective communication between workers in the care delivery process can lead to enhanced productivity in the management of patients in the ED.

Furthermore, transformational leaders support and encourage the spirit of togetherness, where group contributions are acknowledged and rewarded. This approach contributes to proper cooperation and mutual understanding of the members since the students had to work in interdisciplinary teams. Ultimately, transformational leaders can directly address issues of communication breakdown within the ED staff to work more as a team and provide the best patient care (Northouse, 2021).

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

Interprofessional Education Experience (IPE) thus provides a sound model of addressing competition within multicomponent teams. IPE refers to the education of learners across different fields in healthcare with an aim of enhancing not only interpersonal relationships but also effective communication (Krystallidou et al., 2024). Mapping shared curricula regarding interpersonal communication, conflict management, and interprofessional teamwork can help educate the staff for enhanced collaboration within IDT (Krystallidou et al., 2024). Such programs may involve role-play activities, which present situations that are similar to those in the ED and provide an opportunity to practice teamwork.

Another strategy that works in enhancing interdisciplinary is having daily interdisciplinary meetings. Establishing these meetings enables the staff members of the various departments to discuss the cases, share information as well as develop the coordinated case management strategies. This way they offer a platform for learning and solving emerging challenges through peer interaction and support (Wei et al., 2020).

Another important component is the shared objectives and accountability measures for the need to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration. This enables all the people in the team to set goals that are understandable and relevant to us all such as reducing patient waiting time, or to offer quality services to patients. Such standards suggest goals which have to be achieved, and people are more inclined to cooperate to provide the required patient care.

Both Interdisciplinary meetings and IPE are related to the communications issues mentioned in the interview since the purpose of the both is to reduce silos and enhance collaborative work. From this literature, it is clear that these approaches promote the spirit of collaboration among the different practice fields as well as patients’ success stories, making these approaches credible (Reeves et al., 2021).

References

Krystallidou, D., Kersbergen, M. J., de Groot, E., Fluit, C. R., Kuijer-Siebelink, W., Mertens, F., ... & Pype, P. (2024). Interprofessional education for healthcare professionals. A BEME realist review of what works, why, for whom and in what circumstances in undergraduate health sciences education: BEME Guide No. 83.  Medical Teacher, 1-18.

McCabe, D. (2020).  Changing change management: Strategy, power and resistance. Routledge.

Northouse, P. G. (2021). Leadership: Theory and practice (9th ed.). Sage Publications.

Wei, H., Corbett, R. W., Ray, J., & Wei, T. L. (2020). A culture of caring: the essence of healthcare interprofessional collaboration.  Journal of interprofessional care,  34(3), 324-331.

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