Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

1

Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

After interviewing a nurse and identifying different issues, the one immediate solution is

medication errors. Medication error is any inappropriate medicine for the patient that brings

unexpected results. In some cases, it could lead to drastic events such as the patient's death. This

issue needs the collaboration of all healthcare facilities to get an immediate solution. The solution

to the problem will improve patient trust in a healthcare facility and reduce nurse burnout. The plan

will be carried out in the research department, where the root cause of the issue will be researched.

Objective

A detailed action plan will be implemented to learn, implement, evaluate and adapt change

after identifying the root causes behind medication errors. The plan aims to find ways to avoid

medication errors that lead to complicated situations. This objective is aligned with the

organizational objective to improve patient satisfaction and reduce patient stays in hospitals.

Questions and Predictions

1. How does facility collaboration help to reach a substantive solution?

a. Facility collaboration is critical in this situation because the cause of the issue is

unknown. The opinions of facility members will help look at the problem from all

dimensions.

2. How medication error affects patient trust level?

a. When patients experience longer hospital stays, pay huge medical expenses and

experience a lack of interest in medical experts, they do not prefer the same medical

facility for the next time.

3. How does the elimination of medication errors reduce patients' stay at hospitals?

2

a. When patients receive accurate care and medication, their recovery will be fast.

Thus, eliminating medication errors leads to a reduction in inpatient hospital stays.

4. How will the change be implemented to avoid the issue practically?

a. After discussions with facility members, an action plan will be prepared. The

change will be implemented following the action plan to avoid the problem step-by-

step.

b. At the beginning, the workload would increase by 5 – 10%. Nevertheless, that

percentage will decrease as the mangers become more proficient as the process is

polished.

Change Theories and Leadership Strategies

Lewin's change theory highlights three stages: unfreeze, change, and refreeze. This theory

will improve team collaboration and implement the required change within the organization

(Wojciechowski, Pearsall, & Murphy, 2016). According to the interviewee, the organization faces

a blame culture because no one takes responsibility in case of medication errors. This is why it is

difficult to find the root cause. Healthcare organizations comprise complex adaptive systems that

take time and effort. Implementing the theory will unfreeze the issue by motivating facility

members to communicate their concerns and suggest a change for better outcomes. And after the

implementation of the change plan, the organizational structure will refreeze. Lewin's change

theory promotes collaboration among teams because it comprises different critical steps, such as

interest, learning, implementation, evaluation, and adaptation. During unfreezing, stage teams will

collaborate and discuss the issue. Discussions will happen to look for a collectively adaptable

solution. And after the implementation of that solution within the organization, the system will be

refreezing (Wojciechowski, Pearsall, & Murphy, 2016).

3

Leadership Strategy

Transformational leadership strategy is the best match for motivating interdisciplinary

teams for collective performance to solve a problem. Transformational leaders motivate team

members to work collectively in a shared environment and understand contrasting perspectives to

reach a substantive decision. Transformational leadership will help interdisciplinary teams to

understand different perspectives and evaluate the problem from every dimension (Collins, Owen,

Digan, & Dunn, 2020).

Team Collaboration Strategy

In this segment, the teamwork plan starts by defining the responsibilities and actions that

each member should implement while representing the plan's implementation. This can be done by

implementing a “who, what, where, and when” approach.

For example:

 Team leader: will explain the aims and objectives of the group discussion and what they

are expecting from each member.

 Research Department: will look at different surface causes that lead to medication errors

and discuss those causes with team members to record their behaviour.

 Nurses: will explain the negative outcomes of medication errors on patient health and trust

level.

 Physicians: will discuss how medication errors could lead to drastic outcomes and why an

immediate solution is mandatory.

 Safety Manager: will discuss his concerns related to the issue and propose a solution.

4

 Quality Control Department: will analyze the impact on the overall quality of the

healthcare system and propose a solution to keep things protected.

Along with all these responsibilities, each member will propose their side of the solution to

understand the problem and reach a substantive and practically effective decision.

Collaboration Approach

An interdisciplinary collaboration approach is the best match for this situation; that helps

team members from different disciplines to work in collaboration and solve an issue. The

multimodal approach helps keep team members united and understand the root causes of

medication error from the viewpoint of each discipline. The interdisciplinary approach will solve

the issue immediately and propose an authentic solution that could be implemented within the

organization (Morley & Cashell, 2017).

Required Organizational Resources

Following resources are required to implement planned change and to solve the issue;

 Staffing Needs: one expert from each hospital department is required for interdisciplinary

discussion.

 Equipment: research tools are required to research the root causes behind medication

errors. These resources are not expensive, and the organizational research department has

these resources already in use.

 Access Needed: patient and departmental access are mandatory to understand the issue

from the patient's and departmental perspectives.

5

 Budget: the overall budget requires for learning, researching, evaluating and implementing

change is $1 million. Most of this budget will spend on the training of workers to eliminate

the blame culture from the organization and on the research of the issue and solution. As

the organization is successful thus, this budget will not affect organizational resources. But

if the issue will not solved, the organization will lose money, time and resources.

6

References

Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., & Dunn, F. (2020). Applying transformational leadership in

nursing practice. National Library of Medicine, 59-66.

Morley, L., & Cashell, A. (2017). Collaboration in Health Care. Journal of Medical Imaging, 207-

216.

Wojciechowski, E., Pearsall, T., & Murphy, P. (2016). A Case Review: Integrating Lewin’s

Theory with Lean’s System Approach for Change. ANA,

https://doi.org/10.3912/OJIN.Vol21No02Man04.