Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification – Communication and Coordination in Patient Care

Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification – Communication and Coordination in Patient Care

In the multifaceted environment of modern healthcare, it is crucial to have efficient cooperation between different teams and professionals. Nevertheless, it remains a challenge in most healthcare facilities as various departments fail to work together effectively so as to improve the overall patient experience. This report is based on the interview conducted with a participant, Mr. T, a registered nurse in a large urban hospital. The interview of the students was conducted with the goal of determining something specific within the organization that may benefit from the use of interdisciplinary solutions. The subsequent sections will provide an overview of the interview, establish the problem under consideration, and examine possible change theories, leadership activities, and collaboration models that may be useful in addressing the discussed issue.

Interview Summary

Mr. T is a forty-four-year-old registered nurse working in one of the biggest urban hospitals dealing with thousands of individuals daily. His responsibilities include direct patient care, collaboration with other disciplines, and patient teaching and discharge planning. In the interview, Mr T pointed out several problems with how patient care is handled in the hospital, including how care is handed over from one department to another and vice versa.

According to Mr T, the operational communication with other sections, such as emergency, inpatient, and outpatient care, is poor, resulting in customer dissatisfaction due to delayed services. He pointed out that the hospital uses team meetings and handoffs regardless of shifts to deal with this problem, but they are not so efficient. The culture of the organization as a whole tends toward valuing teamwork, but Mr. T noted that in practice, collaboration mostly occurs within a department rather than across departments. He also pointed out that the hospital fosters interprofessional teamwork. Still, adequate measures are lacking to adopt the interprofessional strategies that comprise the personnel of the healthcare institution, particularly nurses, physicians, social workers, and administrators.

Issue Identification

From the interview, one area of concern is the lack of smooth coordination when transferring a patient from one department to the other in the hospital. An interdisciplinary approach adopting the evidence-based practice model would be logical because it concerns stakeholders in different disciplines who are expected to coordinate their efforts and deliver patient care. The lack of communication and interdisciplinary collaboration implies that patients receive disjointed care, which can have adverse consequences in both efficacy and patient satisfaction.

An interdisciplinary approach is also necessary because it requires the involvement of several staff members in the healthcare delivery sector; this, therefore, ensures that the programs that are developed address all the problems surrounding the issue (Geese & Schmitt, 2023). For example, the nurses could contribute ideas regarding patient care requirements during transitions, while the administrative personnel could identify ways of enhancing communication and working processes.

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Among the change theories useful in managing patient transition concerns, Kotter’s 8-Step change Model is practical for managing change, as evidenced by the study by Graves et al. (2023). The first strategy, creating awareness, is essential in getting stakeholders to note the existence of a problem that requires change. This urgency can be created by providing information on the adverse effects of inefficient inter-departmental communication, including longer patient waiting periods, a higher likelihood of readmissions, and deficits in patient satisfaction. Thus, making these issues clear will help the hospital rally for a more comprehensive, cross-functional approach towards patient transitions.

Transitioning to the next steps, which include forming the guiding coalition and establishing the vision, is equally important. The nursing staff, administrators, and social workers can have a joint brainstorming session to define common goals and objectives for improving cooperation within the hospital. This coalition is supposed to communicate this vision to ensure that other departments understand and work towards achieving this common goal. The remaining four steps—enabling action by eliminating barriers, creating quick organizational wins, reinforcing improvements, and sustaining the change—provide a clear, practical framework for the management and process of bringing sustainable improvements to interdisciplinary collaboration.

The source by Graves et al. (2023) is published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal, a well-known and highly regarded peer-reviewed journal within the medical and educational contexts. This source has been written by authors from appropriate academic institutions through a quality, peer-reviewed process. The article’s focus on Kotter’s Change Model within an area of medical education increases its applicability to health care and, as such, makes it credible and relevant in this discussion.

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

One of the leadership strategies that could go a long way in addressing the challenges of patient transitions is Transformational Leadership. Explaining the concept, Lin et al. (2020) believe that transformational leaders encourage their people to work and drive change. In terms of applying the concept within the context of enhancing cooperation between different disciplines, a transformational leader fully participates in the interactions with team members to augment the exchange of information and considerations to positively impact patients’ outcomes during handover. It is a leadership style characterized by team member growth, thus resulting in better job satisfaction and commitment to organizational objectives. Thus, building and promoting culture fosters commitment, and transformational leaders ensure that diverse groups are brought together with a clear focal point of delivering improved transitions for patients.

However, translating culture change initiatives is easily facilitated when using transformational leadership. For instance, a transformational leader in Mr. T’s hospital could change the culture from hierarchical and fragmented to collaborative. This change can be facilitated by acknowledging the work of teams, training and developing employees to encourage teamwork, and providing constant reminders of the importance of efficient teamwork in patient care. In this way, through positive processes and examples of cooperation, a transformational leader pursues values that bring about greater harmony and cooperation in the workplace.

The article by Lin et al. (2020) is published in Frontiers in Psychology, a peer-reviewed scientific journal with a high visibility and acceptance rate, with consideration given to its rigorous peer-review process and commitment to advancing the field of psychology. This makes it a credible source as all the authors are affiliated with reputable universities. Therefore, the combination of transformational leadership and the sources of stress in the study establishes a sound theoretical framework relevant to healthcare leadership approaches.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

An example of a collaboration model that could be adopted is the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies framework. The principles that make up this framework are communication, roles and responsibilities, teamwork, and values/ethics for interprofessional practice, as postulated by Zorek et al. (2021). By implementing these competencies into the training of the hospital’s staff and into the process of delivering care, the hospital can enhance the performance of the interdisciplinary teams, thus clarifying members’ roles and responsibilities and facilitating the effective means of communication required for the effective organization of patient care. This approach is relevant to the identified issue because it offers a systematic way of enhancing interdisciplinary relations, which are crucial in transitioning patient management responsibilities. The IPEC framework has been acknowledged in the literature and hence aligns with best practices and acceptable methods of dealing with the hospital’s problems.

Zorek et al.’s (2021) article is published in the American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal of health professions education. The fact that the journal is credible, given its topic of interest, and the use of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) framework to enhance interdisciplinary learning is also a plus. The manuscript’s authors also have ample knowledge of interprofessional education, which improves the general validity of the presented concepts.

Conclusion

The problem of patient handoff in Mr T’s hospital can be solved by adopting an interdisciplinary approach based on the best available evidence. Applying Kotter’s Change Model and implementing the principles of Transformational Leadership will help the hospital build a culture and organizational structure that will foster interdepartmental collaboration. The expansion of the IPEC Core Competencies framework will further augment the performance of ITPs and, consequently, patients’ experiences.

References

Geese, F., & Schmitt, K.-U. (2023). Interprofessional Collaboration in Complex Patient Care Transition: a Qualitative Multi-Perspective Analysis. Healthcare, 11(3), 359. https://doi.org/10.3390/healthcare11030359

Graves, L., Dalgarno, N., Hoorn, R. V., Hastings-Truelove, A., Mulder, J., Kolomitro, K., Kirby, F., & Wylick, R. van. (2023). Creating change: Kotter’s change management model in action. Canadian Medical Education Journal, 14(3). https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC10351637/

Lin, C. pei, Xian, J., Li, B., & Huang, H. (2020). Transformational Leadership and Employees’ Thriving at Work: The Mediating Roles of Challenge-Hindrance Stressors. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(1). NCBI. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01400

Zorek, J. A., Lacy, J., Gaspard, C., Najjar, G., Eickhoff, J., & Ragucci, K. R. (2021). Leveraging the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Competency Framework to Transform Health Professions Education. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 85(7), 8602. https://doi.org/10.5688/ajpe8602

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For this assessment, you will create a 2-4 page report on a interview you have conducted with a health care professional. You will identify an issue from the interview that could be improved with an interdiscplinary approach, and review best practices and evidence to address the issue.

Communication and Coordination in Patient Care

For this assessment, you will report on the information that you collected in your interview, analyzing the interview data and identifying a past or current issue that would benefit from interdisciplinary approach. This could be an issue that has not been addressed by an interdisciplinary approach or one that could benefit from improvements related to the interdisciplinary approach currently being used. You will discuss the interview strategy that you used to collect informtaion. Your interview strategy should be supoorted by citations from the literature. Additionally, you will start laying the foundation for your Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal (Assessment 3) by researching potential change theories, leadership strategies and collaboration approaches that could be relevant to issue you have identified. Please be certain to review the scoring guide to confirm specific required elements of this assessment. Note that there are differences between basic, profocient and distinguished scores.

When submitting your plan, use the Interview and Issue Identification template ( I have attached)

Additonally, be sure to address the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring

Summarize an interview focused on past or current issues at a health care organization

Identify an issue from an interview for which an evidemce based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate

Cite a 3 min sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas.

Make sure that in-text citations and reference list folloe current APA style.
Describe potential change theories and leadership strategies that could inform an interdisciplinary solution to an organozational issue.

Describe collaboration approaches from the literature that could facilitate establishing or improving an interdisciplinary team to address an organizational issue.

Communicate with writing that is clear, logically orgainized and profesional, with correct grammar and spelling and using current APA style.