Background
The healthcare industry is an environment that is continually evolving. This is to guarantee safety for the patients while also providing them with the finest available remedies and healthcare management. As a nurse, we are trained to think critically, and thus, we need to be able to self-reflect and comprehend what is working, what is not working, and why (Saunders et al., 2016). The importance of critical thinking in nursing cannot be overstated. Patients are varied, as are their clinical manifestations. To deliver safe, high-quality care, nurses must be able to make reasonable clinical judgments and solve difficulties. Nurses must be critical thinkers in order to tackle the demands of caring for increasingly complicated patients. We must also ensure that patients are treated with dignity and respect while still maintaining and validating them in a humane manner.
Interdisciplinary Collaboration Experience Reflection
The experience I will be discussing is one that came up when our outpatient clinic evaluated the findings of our monthly Press Ganey Survey ratings. In reviewing these results at their monthly meeting, both the practice and the nurse manager discovered that many of our chemotherapy patients did not believe they were receiving enough guidance on how to manage their diet while undergoing treatment. After brainstorming for suggestions around the workplace, we agreed that employing a dietician would be the best course of action to address our patient’s issues with nutritional education. When we presented our suggestion to our regional top management, we were informed that hiring a dietician was not in the budget, although they believed that we had the proper idea. It was proposed that since we are a hospital-based clinic and the hospital employs dieticians, we might borrow one of the hospital’s dieticians for the patients who would like dietary consultations.
The top management was able to make arrangements with the hospital administration and a willing dietician and we started to provide dietary consultations to each and every patient starting chemotherapy. This was fairly effective in improving our Press Ganey ratings, although patients occasionally had to wait a while for the dietician to leave the hospital. For these patients, nurses worked with dieticians to create patient packages that included all the information that they would give them. Since we operate in an urban, underdeveloped region where these patients weren’t really taught about this, we also collaborated to develop an interactive “nutrition board” that teaches patients how to prepare a nutritious meal for themselves. They had the option to select several meals and arrange them on a plate to make a well-balanced dinner (similar to MyPlate by the U.S. Department of Agriculture).
The effectiveness of this strategy depended on how interested the patients were in paying attention and learning from these sessions. Additionally, we were fortunate to have a crew that was adaptable and patient, which let us do our tasks fast. By keeping lines of communication open, we were able to successfully cooperate and get beyond obstacles by coming up with a way to respect the patient’s time.
Poor Collaboration and Inefficient Management
Lack of cooperation can lead to ineffective management of not only financial resources but also human resources. According to Butcher et al. (2019), business accomplishments may be linked, in great part, to excellent communication, cooperation, and teamwork. On the other hand, poor conversation and miscommunication can lead to a lot of failures that are very expensive for your business. An average cost of $11,000 per employee per year was incurred as a result of inadequate communication (Ziano & Villanova, 2022). According to Butcher et al. (2019), “collaboration is not easy and, if not done well, can result in significant costs in time and money as well as poor outcomes for those affected” (p. 75). As we saw in the Vila Health Scenario presented by Capella University, bad teamwork happened all around, and as a result, Chad and the Information Technology team chose to do the bare minimum to assist (Saunders et al., 2016). This led to a major waste of money and time resources. The top management should have convened and coordinated before ruling out the system to build a better strategy and tactics to assist personnel during this process. The system’s installation was poorly conceived.
Best-Practice Leadership Strategies
The best-practice leadership tactics for improving an interdisciplinary team’s capacity to achieve its objectives would be the use of proper communication and being sensitive to the needs of both the group and individuals. The five most coveted leadership qualities, according to Naik (2019) are readiness to change, self-effacement, inquisitiveness, determination, and self-discipline. Furthermore, Naik (2019) postulates that leaders need to be more of listeners rather than talkers. Additionally, they should learn how to ask meaningful questions and to be vulnerable in front of people. According to the Vila Health Scenario, even managers who are meant to be leaders were unable to engage with staff members effectively. Additionally, they were unable to evaluate their requirements during the rollout of the new electronic health records because they themselves were too overwhelmed. They may have had a better outcome if they had been able to show greater leadership qualities to evaluate both their demands and the needs of everyone else.
Stephen, as a leader, should have been able to find a solution to the team’s challenges. In order to get the best results, a leader should, in the words of Weberg and Davidson (2019), comprehend the job at hand, design a detailed strategic approach to facing the mountain of issues that influence your system, and meet those obstacles head-on. In my opinion, Lisa, the nurse who appeared to be more acquainted with the new system, should have been identified as a resource for the other nurses to use. Everyone on the team had negative things to say about Josh, the implementation coach. The team members could have been more open to learning and had an easier time figuring out the new system if they had been able to get in touch with someone they know.
Best-Practice Interdisciplinary Collaboration Strategies
Open communication and team building are two multidisciplinary cooperation tactics that can aid a team in achieving its objectives and collaborating more successfully. The personnel at Clarion Court should have been able to address any questions or issues with management and work with them to find a solution. According to Sullivan et al. (2015), interprofessional teamwork has been shown to enhance healthcare outcomes and procedures. A successful team might also be formed through team-building activities. Sullivan et al. (2015) further emphasize on this point by postulating that developing trust takes time and a lot of human touch. When teams have the chance to work together on a regular basis, the growth of team confidence is automatically enhanced. In the Vila Health Activity, it appeared that no one on the team trusted another. Scavenger hunts in small groups on a regular basis to get everyone to cooperate more regularly can assist to establish trust and enable goal-oriented collaboration.
References
Butcher, J. R., Gilchrist, D. J., Phillimore, J., & Wanna, J. (2019). Attributes of effective collaboration: insights from five case studies in Australia and New Zealand. Policy Design and Practice, 2(1), 75-89.
Naik, B. S. (2019). Leaders for the medical professionals: Need of the hour. APIK Journal of Internal Medicine, 7(3), 90.
Saunders, R., Singer, R., Dugmore, H., Seaman, K., & Lake, F. (2016). Nursing students’ reflections on an interprofessional placement in ambulatory care. Reflective Practice, 17(4), 393-402.
Sullivan, M., Kiovsky, R. D., Mason, D. J., Hill, C. D., & Dukes, C. (2015). Interprofessional collaboration and education. AJN The American Journal of Nursing, 115(3), 47-54.
Weberg, D., & Davidson, S. (2019). Leadership for evidence-based innovation in nursing and health professions. Jones & Bartlett Learning.
Ziano, I., & Villanova, D. (2022). Spontaneous Anchors Bias Consumers’ Divisions, Judgments, and Behavior. Journal of Economic Psychology, 102534.