Reflection – Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Addressing Nurse Staffing Shortages

Reflection – Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Addressing Nurse Staffing Shortages

Hello and welcome; my name is Timeisha Williams. Today, I will reflect on an interdisciplinary collaboration scenario of a healthcare team dealing with the significant challenge of staffing shortage in our organization. The shortage of nurses is one of the areas of concern not only affecting the quality of care provided to patients but also the welfare of caregivers. As such, I will share our best and worst experiences as a team, explain what can happen if cooperation is low, and suggest ways to enhance collaboration.

Let’s Begin with a Reflection on an Interdisciplinary Collaboration Experience

To begin with, the interdisciplinary team members in the scenario included the nurse leader, the human resources manager, the physician, and the hospital administrator. Notably, the general aim was to find ways to reduce staffing crises’ impact on staff because of high turnover rates and burnout.

Among the most significant achievements we made during our cooperation, I can pinpoint the choice of using shift work among the nurses. Our nurse leader developed this idea, and the HR manager expressed great interest in the plan. Therefore, staff morale increased significantly, reducing the turnover rates among the staff. The highly collaborative nature of the team also ensured that all of us could take different opinions into account, which resulted in a favorable outcome.

On the other hand, the experience presented challenges and areas for improvement. One of the challenges was the need for more synergy when transitioning to implementing flexible working hours. The human resources manager and the nurse leader needed to agree on this strategy, which created confusion among the individuals in the field. This led to confusion in communication and human relations and made some employees perceive that their needs must be appropriately met.

Impact of Poor Collaboration on Resource Management

The problems arising from our poorly done collaboration affected the handling of human and financial resources very closely. These delays in working times resulted in increased overtime as working hours were to be covered due to confusion. Furthermore, the shifting directives led to confusion surrounding expectations and created frustration among the staff, which only worsened the stated goal of combating staff burnout. Besides, a study by Rawlinson et al. (2021) shows that such inefficiencies exist in healthcare organizations due to poor interactions that reduce efficiency and adversely affect patients’ care​.

Let’s Now Delve into the Discussion on Ineffective Collaboration

The breakdown in collaboration between the team members had the following impacts. The lack of an organized communication structure led to a lack of coherence in implementing the changes, as departments had different ideas about the changes. This approach escalated the problem of delay and reduced morale among the team members since miscommunications were the order of the day. In their works, Anderson et al. (2020) postulate that communication and roles are keys to collaboration, and these fundamental principles were absent in this particular scenario.

Let Me Now Describe Some of the Best-Practice Leadership Strategies from the Literature for Improved Collaboration

Since interdisciplinary teams are characteristic of healthcare, there is a need to embrace some leadership strategies to enhance collaboration and accountability. One of them is transformational leadership, which focuses on the motivation and mobilization of people for a specific aim. Essentially, transformational leaders can facilitate setting up a shared vision so that all team members feel part of the process and equally accountable for the results achieved (Lin et al., 2020). This kind of leadership approach would have been helpful in the described scenario since it can facilitate work planning and ensure everyone in the team has the same goal.

Let’s Also Discuss Best-Practice Interprofessional Collaboration Strategies

Team huddles or briefings represent one of the most effective ways to increase interprofessional collaboration. Such brief yet daily meetings help ensure that everyone on the team is aware of the current status of the ongoing projects and can respond to any emerging challenges early enough. Various structured communication tools, such as team huddles, have improved teamwork, according to a study by Samardzic et al. in 2020. Applying this strategy could have saved time and reduced misunderstandings and consequent delays that appeared in our case, providing better teamwork.

In summary, the described scenario with the theoretical interdisciplinary collaboration concerning staffing shortages demonstrated the possible benefits and sources of tension in such cooperation. Although we successfully adopted some strategies, the general outcome could have been better due to the lack of clear communication and collaboration. Suppose interdisciplinary teams incorporate best-practice leadership elements such as transformational leadership and engage in efficient communication by conducting huddles daily. In that case, the teams will be able to optimize the utilization of resources to provide optimal outcomes for patients and staff. Exposure or mere thinking about such experiences is vital in constantly enhancing healthcare practice.

Thank you for your time and attention.

References

Anderson, J. E., Lavelle, M., & Reedy, G. (2020). Understanding adaptive teamwork in health care: Progress and future directions. Journal of Health Services Research & Policy, 26(3), 208–214. https://doi.org/10.1177/1355819620978436

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

Rawlinson, C., Carron, T., Cohidon, C., Arditi, C., Hong, Q. N., Pluye, P., Peytremann-Bridevaux, I., & Gilles, I. (2021). An overview of reviews on interprofessional collaboration in primary care: Barriers and facilitators. International Journal of Integrated Care, 21(2), 32. https://doi.org/10.5334/ijic.5589

Samardzic, M., Doekhie, K. D., & Wijngaarden, J. D. H. (2020). Interventions to improve team effectiveness within health care: A systematic review of the past decade. Human Resources for Health, 18(2). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-019-0411-3

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Using Kaltura, record a video (5–10 minutes) where you reflect on an interprofessional collaboration experience, proposing recommendations for how to improve interprofessional collaboration that can be shared with leadership and colleagues. Support these recommendations with references to the literature.

Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Addressing Nurse Staffing Shortages

The interprofessional project that you reflect on may be one that you collaborated on at your current or former place of practice, or you may choose to imagine you collaborated on the interprofessional project presented in the Assessment 01 Supplement: Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Video [PDF] Download Assessment 01 Supplement: Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Video [PDF] resource and reflect on that.

Be sure that your assessment addresses the following criteria. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you will know what is needed for a distinguished score:

Reflect on an interdisciplinary collaboration experience, noting ways in which it was successful and unsuccessful in achieving desired outcomes.
Explain aspects of the collaboration that helped the team make progress toward relevant goals or outcomes.
Explain aspects of the collaboration that could have been improved.
Identify how poor collaboration can result in inefficient management of human and financial resources, citing supporting evidence from the literature.
Discuss the ways in which the interdisciplinary team did not collaborate effectively.
Discuss the negative implications for the human and financial resources of the interdisciplinary team and the organization as a whole.
Cite the literature for support.
Identify best-practice leadership strategies from the literature that would improve an interdisciplinary team’s ability to achieve its goals, citing at least one author from the literature.
Identify at least one leadership best practice or strategy that you believe would improve the team’s ability to achieve their goals.
Identify the strategy and its source or author and provide a brief rationale for your choice of strategy.
Cite the literature for support.
Identify best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategies to help a team achieve its goals and work together, citing the work of at least one author.
Identify at least one best practice or strategy for interdisciplinary collaboration to help the team achieve its goals and work more effectively together.
Identify the strategy, its source, and reasons why you think it will be effective.
Communicate in a professional manner, is easily audible, and uses proper grammar. Format reference list in current APA style.
Submit an APA-formatted reference list for any sources that you cited specifically in your video or used to inform your presentation.
The Example Kaltura Reflection will show you how to cite scholarly sources in the context of an oral presentation.
Notes:

Refer to the Campus tutorial Using Kaltura [PDF] as needed to record and upload your reflection.
If you require the use of assistive technology or alternative communication methods to participate in this activity, please contact [email protected] to request accommodations.
If, for some reason, you are unable to record a video, please contact your faculty member as soon as possible to explore options for completing the assessment.

References: Cite at least 3 professional or scholarly sources of evidence to support the assertions you make in your video. Include additional properly cited references as necessary to support your statements.
APA Reference Page: Submit a correctly formatted APA reference page that shows all the sources you used to create and deliver your video.
You may wish to refer to the Campus APA Module for more information on applying APA style.
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.