NURS FPX 4010 Assessment 2 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX 4010 Leading in Intrprof Practice

Prof. Name

Date

Interview Summary

I interviewed a charge nurse at Riverside General Hospital to explore interdisciplinary approaches to healthcare challenges. The hospital, known for providing comprehensive care, needs help with high patient readmission rates. The interviewee has over 15 years of experience managing patient flow, staff teams, and all things related to quality improvement. The interview showed that frequent readmissions are associated with shortcomings in discharge planning and the absence of proper follow-up. Discharge education sessions have also been put in place, and follow-up phone calls after discharge have been made by leadership.

Although progress has been made in these areas, it remains fairly erratic because of a lack of staff and interdepartmental collaboration. Even though the organizational culture is supportive of teamwork, departments work in isolation from each other. Therefore, the interviewee suggested that interdisciplinary cooperation should be enhanced, especially between nursing, case management, social work, and primary caregivers.

I employed two key strategies to ensure comprehensive information gathering during the interview: Open-ended questioning and active listening. Most of the questions posed to the interviewee were general, allowing the respondent to explain the situation at the organization in detail. Literature shows that open questions lead to more extensive discussions and the collection of more comprehensive data (Slade & Sergent, 2023).

Moreover, active listening fostered working relationships and checked understanding with the charge nurse. The study defines active listening as paying attention to what a participant says without being judgmental (Slade & Sergent, 2023). This approach argues for the need to engage the interviewees to improve the reliability of the data collected and the interviewee’s comfort.

Issue Identification

One problem discussed in the interview with Riverside General Hospital is high patient readmission rates caused by ineffective discharge planning and subsequent patient management. From the literature, it is clear that interprofessional collaboration leads to better patient outcomes, fewer hospitalizations, and better patient care (Bendowska & Baum, 2023). An interdisciplinary approach based on the best evidence is suitable for this problem because it triggers the cooperation of multiple stakeholders to address the multifaceted causes of readmissions, including medical, social, and financial ones.

Nursing collaboration with case management, social services, and primary care physicians guarantees comprehensive patient care in the delivery process. It is known that when care transitions are accompanied by multidisciplinary interventions, readmission rates within 30 days decrease due to the focus on the gaps in care and patients’ adherence to post-discharge instructions (Snodgrass, 2022). Thus, making this strategy a must for the hospital to achieve sustainable improvement, the hospital can align efforts, ensure efficient use of resources, and improve patient care.

Change Theory and an Interdisciplinary Solution

Lewin’s Change Theory is a popular and well-credited model for change in organizations. It consists of three stages: unfreezing, changing, and refreezing (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). This theory can support the creation of an interdisciplinary solution as it outlines the step-by-step change process for the hospital and is most relevant to solving the patient readmission problem at Riverside General Hospital.

It offers a structure for how those improvements can be incorporated into daily practice and how interdisciplinary cooperation can be enhanced. In the unfreezing stage, leadership may engage the staff in a conversation to appreciate the call for enhanced discharge planning and an integrated approach. In the change phase, organizations could consider using a multidisciplinary team (IDT) to undertake specific outlined coordinated activities like structured IDT meetings for mapping out discharge, follow-up, and access to community resources.

Refreezing would mean these practices become institutionalized within the hospital setting, guaranteeing sustainable change. Errida and Lotfi (2021) have presented sufficient evidence for the relevance of Lewin’s model, especially since it has been used in many healthcare organizations to ensure successful organizational change. Its systematic nature aligns with the requirement for a systematic approach to sustainable enhancement of interprofessional practice and, thus, a suitable strategy to deal with the readmission problem.

Leadership Strategy and an Interdisciplinary Solution

Transformational leadership is a highly effective strategy for interdisciplinary solutions. This leadership style helps and motivates the employees in the organization to focus on the collective objectives (Khan et al., 2020). The leaders at Riverside General Hospital could understand how it is possible to reduce readmission rates and engage the different members of the team to own new discharge planning and follow-up processes.

Transformational leaders can create an environment where diverse healthcare professionals work cohesively by promoting open communication, mutual respect, and a focus on shared goals. The strategy is most suitable for the topic of high readmissions because it fosters accountability and synchronizes teamwork with patient care goals. It can be said that Khan et al. (2020) is a strong and well-known work in the healthcare field where the authors present sufficient literature evidence for the impact of transformational leadership strategy on collaboration and organizational results.

Collaboration Approach for Interdisciplinary Teams

Interprofessional Collaborative (IPC) practices have been acknowledged as the best method for promoting interprofessional collaboration in healthcare organizations. According to IPC, multiple healthcare providers provide integrated, patient-centered care. It enhances team dynamics and patients’ care interactions (Geese & Schmitt, 2023). IPC could improve the discharge planning and follow-up care in Riverside General Hospital by liaising through structurally formulated interdisciplinary team meetings.

These include team involvement in the decision-making process, clear roles of different members, and practical respect for one another, issues that may have otherwise contributed to communication breakdown. Thus, working collaboratively to minimize readmissions. This approach applies to the identified issue because readmission prevention involves close collaboration between nursing, case management, social work, and primary care. It is possible to consider the source Geese and Schmitt (2023) as rather credible as the authors explain multidisciplinary collaborative models that contribute to efficient collaboration and coping with organizational and patient-care issues.

References

Bendowska, A., & Baum, E. (2023). The significance of cooperation in interdisciplinary health care teams as perceived by Polish medical students. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 20(2), 954. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph20020954

Errida, A., & Lotfi, B. (2021). The determinants of organizational change management success: Literature review and case study. International Journal of Engineering Business Management, 13(1), 1–15. Sagepub. https://doi.org/10.1177/18479790211016273