Interdisciplinary Approach

Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Nursing

Consider for a moment an analog clock. In this mechanical system, gears fit together to rotate the hour, minute, and second hands at the appropriate speed. Each gear and hand is an integral part of the system. And if one gear becomes warped, the whole system is affected. The other gears may no longer interlock properly. Perhaps a hand stutters, stops, or does not move at the correct speed. The clock would then no longer be serving its purpose of marking time accurately.

A healthcare organization requires the same clock-like synergy. Many diverse professionals—administrators, nurses, physicians, social workers, and radiologists, to name a few—must come together to serve the purpose of providing safe, high-quality care. So how do you keep the clock moving smoothly?

Students will:

· Apply best practices in interdisciplinary collaboration in healthcare to support patient outcomes

· Recommend strategies for addressing team conflicts or issues

· Analyze the relationship between interdisciplinary collaboration and quality of care

· Analyze the impact of diversity on interdisciplinary teams

By nature, healthcare requires an interdisciplinary approach. Patients may have “one doctor” at their primary care practice, for example, but they also engage with the complete team, including nurses, administrative support personnel, and lab technicians. Perhaps a specialist is called in to assist with a particular condition. All along the way, communication must remain open, direct, and frequent to best support the patient in a seamless and personalized experience. The effectiveness of interdisciplinary teams directly correlates to quality and patient satisfaction. If communication or collaboration falter, quality can suffer.

For this assignment, you will read scenarios where quality has potentially been compromised. Using what you have learned about interdisciplinary collaboration, you will develop a solution to the problem.

Scenario A:

At Meridien Medical Center, hospital policy is to document the “reason” for not administering a medication that is ordered but not administered. The documented reason of “patient refusal” for venous thromboembolism (VTE) prophylaxis has been high across hospital units. In order to improve patient outcomes, the Quality and Patient Safety Committee decided to explore why so many patients refuse VTE prophylaxis. Their inquiry revealed that less experienced nurses were not very comfortable teaching patients about the risks of VTE and pulmonary embolism if they declined the shot. Using an interdisciplinary and collaborative approach, how would you plan to address the situation?

Scenario B :

A new social work graduate, Monica, just started on your unit at Meridien Medical Center, 14 South. She is young and energetic, and everyone seems to like her. The other day during interdisciplinary rounds she was on her phone repeatedly. At first you gave her the benefit of the doubt . . . maybe she was responding to patient messages. But when the attending physician asked Monica a direct question about a patient, she looked up from her phone, mumbled an excuse, and asked the doctor to repeat his question. The physician has voiced his frustrations, citing unprofessionalism and inattentiveness as concerns. Fran, also a member of the team, is an older nurse who has had a productive career at the hospital. When talking about Monica, Fran has lately been seen rolling her eyes and making sarcastic comments about “Gen Z.” You want to help both Monica and Fran be effective team members. What do you do before this problem gets out of hand?

References:

Johnson, J. K., & Sollecito, W. A. (2020). McLaughlin & Kaluzny’s continuous quality improvement in health care (5th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones and Bartlett.

Chapter 6, “Understanding and Improving Team Effectiveness in Quality Improvement” (pp. 174–199)

Baik, D., & Zierler, B. (2019). Clinical nurses’ experiences and perceptions after the implementation of an interprofessional team intervention: A qualitative study. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 28(3/4), 430–443.

Rosen, M. A., DiazGranados, D., Dietz, A. S., Benishek, L. E., & Weaver, S. J. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist, 73(4), 433–450.

Focus on the tables on pages 442 and 443.

Mitchell, R., Boyle, B., Parker, V., Giles, M., Chiang, V., & Joyce, P. (2015). Managing inclusiveness and diversity in teams: How leader inclusiveness affects performance through status and team identity. Human Resource Management, 54(2), 217–239.

Villarruel, A., Washington, D., Lecher, W. T., & Carver, N. A. (2015). A more diverse nursing workforce. American Journal of Nursing, 115(5), 57–62.