Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Interview Summary

A registered nurse (RN) shared information with me at a medium-sized urban hospital. This tertiary care hospital has several specialty departments, such as critical care units, surgical services, and internal medicine services. My interviewee, a charge nurse, works in a medical-surgical unit where they organize day-to-day operations by managing patient assignments, communicating within the team, and resolving staff-related problems: Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification.

The primary topic of discussion during the interview was the problems experienced when multiple healthcare professionals are engaged in patient discharge planning. Inadequate interprofessional coordination between physicians, nurses, physical therapists, and case managers is often responsible for delayed discharges, leading to patient dissatisfaction and readmissions within 30 days of treatment. Leadership has attempted to improve communication through the use of electronic tools and multidisciplinary team meetings, but ineffective implementation has compromised their effectiveness, according to the interviewee.

Interestingly, while the team’s cross-disciplinary culture is evolving, traditional practices dominate. There is coordination across departments, but communication between physicians and other healthcare providers is still fragmented. Strong leadership support and clearly defined roles for all members of the team are success determinants for interdisciplinary teams in the interviewee’s view. While the interviewee was optimistic about increased collaboration, she demanded sustained, research-based initiatives to increase long-term change.

Issue Identification

During the interview, the main issue was poor coordination among healthcare providers during the discharge process. Best practices for the management of inpatient outcomes include collaborative care, using a case-specific, evidence-based, interdisciplinary approach. Interdisciplinary teamwork can ultimately lead to improved patient education and a more effective discharge process, which, in turn, can result in reduced readmissions. Furthermore, patients participating in structured team meetings and proceeding with their treatment preferences significantly improve the chances of effective treatment, as observed by Schwartz et al. (2021), which is evident in the quality of communication.

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Kotter’s and Lewin’s Change Management Models have played important roles in practice to foster interdisciplinary cooperation in effective discharge planning. The Kotter Change Management Model allows teams to adopt a more directed change by creating empowered teams that solidify goals and develop new cultural routines. Graves et al. (2023) state that Kotter’s model delivers long-term, sustained changes in nearly all business units in healthcare.

This makes the model particularly useful in solving communication problems in the healthcare setting, where emphasis on the stages of individual and organizational change is more intense. Published in the Canadian Medical Education Journal, the study is one of the foremost peer-reviewed advances in healthcare practice.

Also, as proposed by Lewin, change management is a model that follows a staged process of unfreezing, changing, and finally refreezing in order to assist organizations in adopting and sustaining change. Empirical studies validate the use of these stages to achieve successful outcomes in team-based care projects. For instance, Stanz et al. (2021) note that any practical leadership approach to swift change in healthcare needs to involve energetic stakeholder devotion and dedication to constant quality enhancement. The study, in the peer-reviewed journal Hospital Pharmacy, suggests that leadership coordination is necessary when organizational transformations are being implemented in hospitals.

All the sources present legitimate evidence that warrants the application of these theories to the development of interdisciplinary collaboration and provides actionable approach strategies that are specifically addressed to the identified issue. Peer-reviewed scholarship, subject matter expertise, and tested data collection instruments constitute the researchers’ authority.

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Both servant and transformational leadership styles contribute to highly effective approaches in developing interdisciplinary action for discharge planning. Specifically, servant leadership creates supportive environments by removing obstacles and encouraging the building of trust and the spirit of collaboration among team members. Canavesi and Minelli (2022) state that practicing servant leadership has positive effects on team outcomes and entrenches organizational culture, which in turn results in the effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams. According to their systematic literature review published in the peer-reviewed Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, their findings further improve the confidence in the model’s credibility and applicability in healthcare settings.

Subsequently, teams are inspired and motivated to achieve common targets by implementing transformational leadership. Teams produce unique solutions and make workplaces thrive at the same time. According to Ystaas et al. (2023), transforming nursing practice to adopt a transformational leadership model improves work environments while generating better patient care. In their review, published by the peer-reviewed journal Nursing Reports, Ystaas et al. (2023) concluded that transformational leaders align staff to achieve specific goals.

These approaches present strong frameworks that work to resolve shortcomings in interdisciplinary team interaction. Through servant leadership, team members develop reasonable role ownership, and transformational leadership enables diverse professionals to achieve favorable patient outcomes. Such proven leadership models maintain academic validity and practical application to establish multidisciplinary problem-solving programs in healthcare organizations.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

Three functional approaches for better teamwork in discharge planning are Structured Interdisciplinary Bedside Rounds (SIBRs) that use the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, Recommendation) method, plus encouraging psychological team safety. Combining these approaches is proven to boost the effectiveness of discharge coordination. The leadership-supported structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds framework improves team communication and joint work tasks to enhance professional interdisciplinarity.

Schwartz et al. (2021) found that SIBRs establish concurrence between treatment objectives and team status reports. The proposed approach effectively addresses the problem by specifying essential parameters of communication issues and role ambiguity during discharge planning. The study is credible in that it was published in the peer-reviewed Journal of Interprofessional Care, which is a reputable scholarly journal.

Specifically, SBAR communication structures patient information transfers with greater clarity and assured consistent delivery in all transfers. According to Fernández et al. (2022), the SBAR process improves the job satisfaction and professional communication skills of healthcare professionals, aligning it with discharge planning use in healthcare. The validity of the approach is witnessed through publication in the treasured International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health.

Psychological safety between team members allows members to express concerns despite possible judgment. Kim et al. (2020) validated a positive relationship between psychological safety and team performance while identifying psychological safety as vital to building productive collaboration spaces. The results from their peer-reviewed Frontiers in Psychology study verify this claim. The present studies, together with their documented sources, present specific practical measures to develop or boost effective interdisciplinary working relationships.

References

Canavesi, A., & Minelli, E. (2022). Servant leadership: A systematic literature review and network analysis. Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, 34(3), 267–289. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-021-09381-3

Fernández, M. C. M., Martín, S. C., Presa, C. L., Martínez, E. F., Gomes, L., & Sanchez, P. M. (2022). SBAR method for improving well-being in the internal medicine unit: Quasi-experimental research. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(24), 16813. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph192416813

Graves, L., Dalgarno, N., Hoorn, R. V., Truelove, A. H., 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/

Kim, S., Lee, H., & Connerton, T. P. (2020). How psychological safety affects team performance: Mediating role of efficacy and learning behavior. Frontiers in Psychology, 11(1581). https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.01581

Schwartz, J. I., Gonzalez-Colaso, R., Gan, G., Deng, Y., Kaplan, M. H., Vakos, P.-A., Kenyon, K., Ashman, A., Sofair, A. N., Huot, S. J., & Chaudhry, S. I. (2021). Structured interdisciplinary bedside rounds improve interprofessional communication and workplace efficiency among residents and nurses on an inpatient internal medicine unit. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 38(3), 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2020.1863932

Stanz, L., Silverstein, S., Vo, D., & Thompson, J. (2021). Leading through rapid change management. Hospital Pharmacy, 57(4), 422–424. https://doi.org/10.1177/00185787211046855

Ystaas, L. M. K., Nikitara, M., Ghobrial, S., Latzourakis, E., Polychronis, G., & Constantinou, C. S. (2023). The impact of transformational leadership in the nursing work environment and patients’ outcomes: A systematic review. Nursing Reports, 13(3), 1271–1290. https://doi.org/10.3390/nursrep13030108

ORDER A PLAGIARISM-FREE PAPER HERE

We’ll write everything from scratch

---

Create a 2-4 page report on an interview you have conducted with a health care professional colleague. You will identify an issue from the interview that could be improved with an interdisciplinary approach, and review best practices and evidence to address the issue. This is the first of three assessments that build on each other.

Introduction
As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, your participation and leadership in intra- and interdisciplinary teams will be vital to the health outcomes for your patients and organization. One way to approach designing an improvement project, and implementing change, is to become knowledgeable about the challenges that the organization is facing. To do this, you will interview a healthcare professional. This can be a peer, a nursing colleague, administrator, or someone who could provide you with sufficient knowledge and information on a particular problem or concern within the organization.

It would be an excellent choice to complete the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Cycle activity prior to developing the report. The activity consists of four questions that create the opportunity to check your understanding of best practices related to each stage of the PDSA cycle, which is one of a number of change models you can read about. The information gained from completing this activity will promote your success with the Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification report. This will take just a few minutes of your time and is not graded.

Professional Context
By interviewing a healthcare colleague of your choice, you will begin to gather information about an interprofessional collaboration problem that your colleague is experiencing, or has experienced, in the workplace. You will identify a change theory and leadership strategies that can be applied to address this problem.

Overview
This assessment is the first of three related assessments in which you will gather interview information, design a proposal for interdisciplinary problem-solving, and report on how an interdisciplinary improvement plan could be implemented in a place of practice. At the end of the course, your interviewee will have a proposal plan that they could present to stakeholders to address an interdisciplinary problem in the workplace.

You may interview a healthcare professional such as a fellow learner, nursing colleague, administrator, business partner, or another appropriate person who could provide you with sufficient information regarding an organizational problem or an area in which the organization is seeking improvements. Consult the Interview Guide [DOCX] for an outline of how to prepare and the types of information you will need to complete this project successfully.

Instructions
For this assessment, you will report on the information gathered during your interview. You will discuss the interview strategy that you used to collect information. Your interview strategy should be supported by citations from the literature. The goal of this assessment is to analyze the interview data and identify an issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary solution.

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 in use. Additionally, you will prepare for your Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal assessment by researching 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, proficient and distinguished criteria.

Use the Interview and Issue Identification Template [DOCX] to help you stay organized and concise. As you complete the template, make sure you use APA format for in-text citations for the evidence and best practices that are informing your plan, as well as for the reference list at the end. (Because you’re using a template, a title page is optional.)

Additionally, be sure to address the following criteria. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you know what is needed for a distinguished score.

• Summarize an interview focused on past or current issues at a healthcare organization.
• Identify an issue from an interview for which an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.
• Describe change theories and a leadership strategy that could help in developing an interdisciplinary solution to an organizational issue.
• Describe collaboration approaches from the literature that could be relevant in establishing or improving an interdisciplinary team to address an organizational issue.
• Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
• Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.

Additional Requirements

• Length of submission: Use the provided template. 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 three sources of scholarly or professional evidence to support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than 5 years old. See the Capella University Library.
• APA formatting: Make sure that in-text citations and reference list follow current APA style. See the APA Module.

Competencies Measured
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and scoring guide criteria:

• Competency 2: Explain how interdisciplinary collaboration can be used to achieve desired patient and systems outcomes.
  • Summarize an interview focused on past or current issues at a health care organization.
  • Describe collaboration approaches from the literature that could be relevant in establishing or improving an interdisciplinary team to address an organizational issue.
• Competency 3: Describe ways to incorporate evidence-based practice within an interdisciplinary team.
  • Identify an issue from an interview for which an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.
• Competency 4: Explain how change management theories and leadership strategies can enable interdisciplinary teams to achieve specific organizational goals.
  • Describe change theories and a leadership strategy to develop an interdisciplinary solution to an organizational issue.
• Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based communication strategies to impact patient, interdisciplinary team, and systems outcomes.
  • Organize content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions; contains few errors in grammar/punctuation, word choice, and spelling.
  • Apply APA formatting to in-text citations and references, exhibiting nearly flawless adherence to APA format.

Scoring Guide

• Use the scoring guide to understand how your assessment will be evaluated. (ATTACHED)