Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

Interview Summary

I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with the lead family nurse practitioner (FNP) at a rural medical health center. The interview aimed to identify issues within the facility that can be resolved through an interdisciplinary approach. The medical health center provides primary healthcare services majorly to the local community. The FNP I interviewed doubles as the medical center’s administrator and primary health care provider. The facility has been in operation for the last 18 years in which the interviewee has been its administrator for 12 years. The medical center was established to ease the congestion at the general public hospital in the local town. The facility offers limited services, including medical, dental, vision, podiatry, and mental and behavioral health services. All major surgical or specialized treatments are referred to the main hospital in town.

As the primary care provider at the medical center, the FNP is the first care provider at the point of contact. She also ensures that the patients continue receiving appropriate care. She also coordinates the available nurses to help develop good relationships with the patients and the local community. As the medical center’s administrator, the FNP manages all of the facility’s functions, staff, and resources.

The FNP noted that the facility was facing a number of problems that affected its ability to deliver services to the patients and the community efficiently. Most of the problems were linked to the lack of sufficient staffing at the facility. The FNP also noted that the shortage of qualified nurses and physicians requires them to perform roles beyond their scope of practice. This has made some nurses feel worn out, while others have openly expressed their dissatisfaction. There is also a growing strain between physicians and nurses working as primary care providers. The physicians are against this move despite it easing the strain on their roles. The medical center has been operating under strain with insufficient resources and funding. The FNP is also under pressure to work overtime to help with service delivery. The previous management quit after five years when things got hard. The FNP is open to adopting any leadership strategies and interdisciplinary solutions that will improve service delivery and efficiency of the medical center.

Issue Identification

The identified major issues identified include:

• The shortage of healthcare professionals, including nurses and physicians,
• A poor work relationship between nurses and physicians,
• Poor funding.

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Announcing the need for change and communicating the change, and ensuring everyone is fully involved in the change process is a challenge for the majority of healthcare leaders. Research evidence notes that most healthcare professionals view the communication of the change and its motive as the first step toward a successful change process (Nilsen et al., 2020). From Fagerström’s (2021) perspective, a leader leading change within a clinical context leads relationships, processes, and cultures to achieve the best patient outcomes. Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model is the best change theory that efficiently combines these factors of patient outcomes in nursing. The steps in Kotter’s model are first, creating a sense of change urgency, forming a team to guide change, creating a vision and plan for change, communicating the plan and change, eliminating barriers, setting milestones, building on the achieved change, and establish the change within the organization’s culture.

The paper by (Nilsen et al., 2020) is relevant as it explains the characteristics of successful change n healthcare and the importance of stakeholder influence on the change process. It is credible as it has been published in the peer-reviewed journal of BMC health services research published by Biomed Central. The article by Fagerström (2021) is relevant as it explores how change can be managed when implementing new nursing roles. It is relevant as it is published as a chapter in a book focused on models of implementing advanced practice models and the importance of leadership during the change and implementation of new nursing roles.

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

The FNP will be required to develop and adopt various leadership strategies and competencies to lead the necessary change to achieve an interdisciplinary solution. The major leadership strategies, in this case, include adopting open communication. Changing the culture of communication to an open one during organizational change has been noted to be valuable in creating future value as it supports the open exchange of formal and informal information knowledge among members of interdisciplinary teams (Veile et al., 2020). Open communication will therefore aid the FNP in communicating the change process, the visions, and the inclusion of the views of each change agent.

The article by Veile et al. (2020) is relevant as it explores the application and effectiveness of communication strategies during the change process within an organization. It is also credible as it is published in the peer-reviewed  Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

The collaboration of interdisciplinary teams during change can best be managed by adopting the transformational leadership style. The transformational leadership approach focuses on the leader’s charact and the abilities necessary to coordinate, empower, and motivate various members within a team (Collins et al., 2020). Through idealized influence, inspirational motivation, intellectual stimulation, and individualized consideration, the FNP can influence the interdisciplinary team members to continuously focus on the change process and collaborative service delivery and allow them to take charge of leadership roles. The transformational leadership style combined with open communication can therefore help the FNP navigate the complex and dynamic nature of healthcare systems and interdisciplinary teams and implement the necessary changes and actions to solve the identified issues.

The article by Collins et al. (2020) is relevant as it provides details on the importance of transformational leadership in nursing, how it can be achieved, and the elements of the leadership style. It is also credible as it was published in the journal of Nursing Standards by The Royal College of Nursing and has been subject to double-blind peer review.

References

Collins, E., Owen, P., Digan, J., & Dunn, F. (2020). Applying transformational leadership in nursing practice. Nursing Standard (Royal College of Nursing (Great Britain) : 1987), 35(5), 59–66. https://doi.org/10.7748/NS.2019.E11408

Fagerström, L. M. (2021). Leading Change When Implementing Advanced Practice Nursing. In A Caring Advanced Practice Nursing Model of Advanced Practice in Nursing (pp. 219–233). Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-53555-1_12

Nilsen, P., Seing, I., Ericsson, C., Birken, S. A., & Schildmeijer, K. (2020). Characteristics of successful changes in health care organizations: an interview study with physicians, registered nurses and assistant nurses. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/S12913-020-4999-8

Veile, J. W., Kiel, D., Müller, J. M., & Voigt, K. I. (2020). Lessons learned from Industry 4.0 implementation in the German manufacturing industry. Journal of Manufacturing Technology Management, 31(5), 977–997. https://doi.org/10.1108/JMTM-08-2018-0270/FULL/PDF

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

For this assessment you will create a 2-4 page plan proposal for an interprofessional team to collaborate and work toward driving improvements in the organizational issue you identified in the second assessment.

The health care industry is always striving to improve patient outcomes and attain organizational goals. Nurses can play a critical role in achieving these goals; one way to encourage nurse participation in larger organizational efforts is to create a shared vision and team goals (Mulvale et al., 2016). Participation in interdisciplinary teams can also offer nurses opportunities to share their expertise and leadership skills, fostering a sense of ownership and collegiality.

You are encouraged to complete the Budgeting for Nurses activity before you develop the plan proposal. The activity consists of seven questions that will allow you the opportunity to check your knowledge of budgeting basics and as well as the value of financial resource management. The information gained from completing this formative will promote success with the Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal. Completing this activity also demonstrates your engagement in the course, requires just a few minutes of your time, and is not graded.

Professional Context
This assessment will allow you to describe a plan proposal that includes an analysis of best practices of interprofessional collaboration, change theory, leadership strategies, and organizational resources with a financial budget that can be used to solve the problem identified through the interview you conducted in the prior assessment.

Scenario
Having reviewed the information gleaned from your professional interview and identified the issue, you will determine and present an objective for an interdisciplinary intervention to address the issue.

Note: You will not be expected to implement the plan during this course. However, the plan should be evidence-based and realistic within the context of the issue and your interviewee’s organization.

Instructions
For this assessment, use the context of the organization where you conducted your interview to develop a viable plan for an interdisciplinary team to address the issue you identified. Define a specific patient or organizational outcome or objective based on the information gathered in your interview.

The goal of this assessment is to clearly lay out the improvement objective for your planned interdisciplinary intervention of the issue you identified. Additionally, be sure to further build on the leadership, change, and collaboration research you completed in the previous assessment. Look for specific, real-world ways in which those strategies and best practices could be applied to encourage buy-in for the plan or facilitate the implementation of the plan for the best possible outcome.

Using the Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal Template [DOCX] will help you stay organized and concise. As you complete each section of the template, make sure you apply APA format to in-text citations for the evidence and best practices that inform your plan, as well as the reference list at the end.

Additionally, be sure that your plan addresses the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.

Describe an objective and predictions for an evidence-based interdisciplinary plan to achieve a specific goal related to improving patient or organizational outcomes.
Explain a change theory and a leadership strategy, supported by relevant evidence, that is most likely to help an interdisciplinary team succeed in collaborating and implementing, or creating buy-in for, the project plan.
Explain the collaboration needed by an interdisciplinary team to improve the likelihood of achieving the plan’s objective. Include best practices of interdisciplinary collaboration from the literature.
Explain organizational resources, including a financial budget, needed for the plan to succeed and the impacts on those resources if the improvements described in the plan are not made.
Communicate the interdisciplinary plan, with writing that is clear, logically organized, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.
Additional Requirements
Length of submission: Use the provided template. Remember that part of this assessment is to make the plan easy to understand and use, so it is critical that you are clear and concise. Most submissions will be 2 to 4 pages in length. Be sure to include a reference page at the end of the plan.
Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than 5 years old.
APA formatting: Make sure that in-text citations and reference list follow current APA style.
Note: Faculty may use the Writing Feedback Tool when grading this assessment. The Writing Feedback Tool is designed to provide you with guidance and resources to develop your writing based on five core skills. You will find writing feedback in the Scoring Guide for the assessment, once your work has been evaluated.

Portfolio Prompt: Remember to save the final assessment to your ePortfolio so that you may refer to it as you complete the final Capstone course.

Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal
Write a brief introduction (2 to 3 sentences) to your proposal that outlines the issue you are attempting to solve, the part of the organization in which the plan would be carried out, and the desired outcome. This will set the stage for the sections below.
Objective
Describe what your plan will do and what you hope it will accomplish in one or two succinct sentences. Also, comment on how the objective, if achieved, will improve organizational or patient outcomes. For example:
Test a double-loop feedback model for evaluating new product risk with a small group of project managers with the goal of reducing the number of new products that fail to launch. This objective is aligned to the broader organizational goal of becoming more efficient taking products to market and, if successful, should improve outcomes by reducing waste.
Questions and Predictions
For this section ask yourself 3 to 5 questions about your objective and your overall plan. Make a prediction for each question by answering the question you posed. This helps you to define the important aspects of your plan as well as limit the scope and check its ability to be implemented.
For example:
1. How much time will using a double-loop feedback model add to a project manager’s workload?
a. At first, it will likely increase their workloads by 5 to 10 percent. However, as the process is refined and project managers become more familiar and efficient, that percentage will decrease.
Change Theories and Leadership Strategies
For this section, you may wish to draw upon the research you did regarding change theories and leadership for the Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification assessment. The focus of this section is how those best practices will create buy-in for the project from an interdisciplinary team, improve their collaboration, and/or foster the team’s ability to implement the plan. Be sure that you are including at least one change theory and at least one leadership strategy in your explanation. Always remember to cite your sources; direct quotes require quotation marks and a page or paragraph number to be included in the citation.
Another way to approach your explanations in this section is to think through the following:
• What is the theory or strategy?
• How will it likely help an interdisciplinary team to collaborate, implement, and/or buy in to the project plan?
o Make sure to frame this explanation within the organizational context of the proposed plan, that is, your interviewee’s organization.
Team Collaboration Strategy
In this section, begin by further defining the responsibilities and actions that represent the implementation of the plan. One strategy to defining this is to take a “who, what, where, and when” approach for each team member.
For example:
• Project Manager A will apply the double-loop feedback model on one new product project for a single quarter.
• Project Manager B will apply the double-loop feedback model on all new product projects for a quarter.
Vice President A will review the workloads of project managers using the double-loop feedback model every Thursday for one quarter.
After you have roughly outlined the roles and responsibilities of team members, you will explain one or more collaborative approaches that will enable the team to work efficiently to achieve the plan’s objective. As with the change theories and leadership strategies, you may draw on the research you conducted for the Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification assessment. However, you are being asked to give a more in-depth explanation of the collaboration approaches and look at how they will help the theoretical interdisciplinary team in your plan proposal.
Another way to approach your explanations in this section is to think through the following:
• What is the collaboration approach?
• What types of collaboration and teamwork will best help the interdisciplinary team be successful?
• How is the collaboration approach relevant to the team’s needs and will it help drive success?
o Make sure to frame this explanation in terms of the subject of the plan proposal; that is, your interviewee’s organization.