NURS FPX 4010 Assessment 2 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Sample Answer

The nursing profession is the most rewarding and demanding in healthcare. Nurses encounter various challenges that have existed since the inception of nursing practice and they continue to evolve to date. These challenges can lead to adverse outcomes such as burnout, stress, and depression, which increase the risk of medical mistakes, poor patient safety, and poor health outcomes. Various healthcare settings face different challenges.

Therefore, it is important to collect the nursing practice issues from the nurse practitioners who have firsthand accounts of such challenges. This involves conducting interviews with nurses to provide in-depth information about the challenges they experience in nursing practice. The purpose of this paper is to interview a nurse, analyze the interview data, and identify an issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

Interview Summary

To provide a proper basis for this project, I conducted an in-depth interview with a nursing colleague who works as an APRN in the ICU at a local health facility. Her major responsibility is provision of health care services to patients with various critical health problems. The tasks include physical examination, diagnosis, and therapeutic procedures, setting up medical equipment, assessment of vital signs in patients, patient monitoring, and development of treatment plans. The interviewee has undergone intensive training and attained the requisite qualification to work in her position and impact healthcare.

Although the interviewee states that she enjoys her work and is proud of the quality of services delivered by the organization, she identified various issues in the organization. Among the leading challenges is the lack of a proper safety culture in the organization. The nurse claims that despite the existence of safety culture policies, the policies are ineffective because there is a high prevalence of medical errors at the facility. The nurse also revealed that there is a poor medical error reporting culture in the organization. Healthcare professionals at the facility often hide the mistakes committed by their colleagues instead of reporting them, which has led to the escalation of serious impacts of medical errors. The interviewee also stated that the management of the organization is not treating the issue of medical errors with the seriousness it deserves.

The interviewee admitted that the increasing incidences of medical errors can be attributed to poor inter-professional collaboration. She claimed that inter-professional teams at the facility often work together to initiate various initiatives and patient treatment plans. However, nurses and doctors always blame one another for the medical mistakes. The nurse stated that she is conversant with inter-professional collaboration and the associated benefits in patient healthcare outcomes. However, she expressed reservations about interdisciplinary collaboration in her facility due to a lack of respect and trust for nurses, denying nurses sufficient participation in decision-making, and the dominance of physicians.

Identification of the Issue from the Interview

The major issue specified by the interviewee is poor safety culture in the organization. According to Lorenzini et al., (2021), appropriate safety culture is vital for the proper functioning of healthcare organizations. There are numerous strategies to enhance the safety culture in the organization. One of the leading strategies includes the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach. In the case at hand, the utilization of an interdisciplinary approach is essential in providing a platform where all clinical and nonclinical staff partner effectively.

This partnership inspires team cohesiveness and innovation through team dedication and the recognition of mutual goals. As a result, healthcare providers can enhance patient outcomes, avoid medication errors, and enhance efficiency. The health facility should consider developing effective safety policies and ensure staff is adequately trained to comply with the policies to achieve the desired positive changes. Interdisciplinary team involvement is crucial for the success of these policies.

Potential Change Theories that Could Inform an Interdisciplinary Solution to an Organizational Issue

Various change theories and models have been developed to assist in changing the behavior of people in the organization. The selected change theory in this case is the Five A’s Behavior Change Model. The five stages in this model are assessing, advising, agreeing, assisting, and arranging (AHRQ, 2023). When applied in the case at hand, the interdisciplinary team will assess the organizational situation by investigating staff beliefs and behaviors and advise on the need for change.

The agreement phase involves the creation of specific goals for developing a safety culture. Assisting involves recognition of the obstacles to change and identification of the best approaches for change. The arranging stage involves the development of a sophisticated plan that can be utilized as an appropriate policy in this situation. This model of change has been successfully used in various settings. It should be used to inform the development of safety policies by an interdisciplinary team to promote the safety culture of the organization.

Leadership Strategies that Could Inform an Interdisciplinary Solution to an Organizational Issue

The identified leadership strategy is transformational leadership. A transformational leader is likely to improve the safety culture at the healthcare facility by supporting, encouraging, and guiding healthcare providers to promote safety (Robbins & Davidhizar, 2020). Nurses working in ICU are often overwhelmed with responsibilities since they are needed to respond to various emergencies. This often leads to medical errors.

The application of a transformational style is crucial in motivating healthcare providers to collaborate to facilitate one another’s schedule (Robbins & Davidhizar, 2020). Interdisciplinary teams are likely to recognize major attributes and impacts of medication errors and obstacles to change implementation from various perspectives. This leadership strategy is appropriate in this identified issue because it supports the nurse’s ability to deal with contemporary issues.

Collaboration Approaches from the Literature that Could Facilitate Establishing or Improving an Interdisciplinary Team to Address an Organizational Issue

Transformational leadership is essential in supporting team collaboration by encouraging interdisciplinary team members to share their experiences and listen to others’ perspectives (Pattison & Corser, 2023). The interviewee admitted that the interdisciplinary collaboration in her facility is marred by a lack of respect and trust. Therefore, the initial approach is to gather relevant healthcare providers from various departments within the healthcare facility who are involved with roles to play in the ICU. It is important to cultivate a free and accommodative environment where all interdisciplinary team members can feel safe and respected when exchanging ideas and opinions (Walton et al., 2019).

Here, the transformational leader is required to act as a motivator and coordinator to develop a safe work atmosphere by considering the strengths of every interdisciplinary team member and the essence of their collaboration (Pattison & Corser, 2023). Encouraging members of the interdisciplinary team to exchange their knowledge and ideas freely in a safe work atmosphere is the best approach to improving the interdisciplinary team to address the poor safety culture in the organization.

Conclusion

The major issue specified by the interviewee is the poor safety culture in the organization. The identified strategy to enhance the safety culture in the organization is the adoption of an interdisciplinary approach. Collaboration is essential in inspiring team cohesiveness and innovation through team dedication and the recognition of mutual goals. As a result, healthcare providers can enhance patient outcomes, avoid medication errors, and enhance efficiency. The selected change theory in this case is the Five A’s Behavior Change Model. The identified leadership strategy is transformational leadership which improves safety culture by supporting, encouraging, and guiding healthcare providers to promote safety.

References

• AHRQ. (2023). Five major steps to intervention (the “5 A’s”). AHRQ. https //www.ahrq.gov/prevention/guidelines/tobacco/5steps.html
• Lorenzini, E., Oelke, N. D., & Marck, P. B. (2021). Safety culture in healthcare mixed method study. Journal of Health Organization and Management, 35(8), 1080-1097. https //doi.org/10.1108/JHOM-04-2020-0110
• Pattison, N., & Corser, R. (2023). Compassionate, collective or transformational nursing leadership to ensure fundamentals of care are achieved A new challenge or non‐sequitur? Journal of Advanced Nursing, 79(3), 942-950. https //doi.org/10.1111/jan.15202
• Robbins, B., & Davidhizar, R. (2020). Transformational leadership in health care today. The Health Care Manager, 39(3), 117-121. DOI 10.1097/HCM.0000000000000296
• Walton, V., Hogden, A., Long, J. C., Johnson, J. K., & Greenfield, D. (2019). How do interprofessional healthcare teams perceive the benefits and challenges of interdisciplinary ward rounds? Journal of multidisciplinary healthcare, 1023-1032. DOI 10.2147/JMDH.S226330