Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Assignment
Interviews are essential sources of data. Healthcare professionals provide much information regarding the healthcare institutions where they work. They understand the problem they face better and can help provide solutions to these problems. An interview with a healthcare professional such as a nurse or doctor could help provide a perspective on problems they face as a profession or that affect the patients and the organization at large. This essay focuses on interview results that identify a problem and evaluates a change theory, leadership strategies, and collaborative strategies that will help manage the problem.
Interview and Issue Requiring Interdisciplinary Approach
During this assessment, I interviewed Mrs. Davis, an advanced practice registered nurse working in the surgical unit as a charge nurse. Before the intervention, I prepared objectives and interview questions to help keep me focused. I also ensured the timing was good, at 10:00 am when individuals were active, and there were thus few distractions. However, the hour was busy, and her incoming calls kept disrupting the interview. Choosing a better time next time will help prevent such problems. Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Assignment
Mrs. Davis revealed that she had been a nurse for 23 years. She worked as a deputy charge nurse for seven years and now as a charge nurse for four years during her career as a nurse. She worked in a children’s hospital for five years after registering as a nurse and has worked for this hospital for 19 years. Mrs. Davis loves her job and identifies the main problem as staff shortage. The problem has persisted for a long time, and many interventions have been unsuccessful, mainly because the problem is universal. The country has allowed foreign nurses to work in the nation, but all these interventions have failed to meet the needs of US citizens.
The problem is worse in nursing because of the many particular roles in the institutions and the organizational policy of rotating nurses in various departments. Mrs. Davis admitted that nurses’ shortage affects various other roles such as scheduling and delegation, and patient management contributing to nurses’ work overload. The problem has caused an increase in the number of medical errors in the specific affected departments. According to her, training nurses to work in various departments to help try to solve the global problem affecting the hospital. She also added that the strategy would cost the hospital less and avoid consequences, such as medical errors. Mrs. Davis also laments that other professionals, such as physicians, face staff shortages, hence the need for an interdisciplinary approach to address the problem.
Change Theory and Leadership Strategies
Kurt Lewin’s change theory is healthcare’s most widely used change theory. The theory has three stages: unfreezing, moving, and refreezing, which help managers manage change from recognizing its need to implementing it. The theory will help the manager recognize resistance, prevent it, and manage change resistance if it arises. The unfreezing stage introduces the need to abandon the older ways or improve them with newer interventions that are more effective and less costly. The second stage will help executive team members support staff in accepting and implementing change. The third stage entails incorporating change into culture through incorporation into the organizational policies. Kurt Lewin theorizes theory as dynamic and continuous, enabling healthcare leaders to implement and amend change interventions for better outcomes. Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Assignment
Collaborative Strategies
Reward and recognition are effective leadership strategies that can help implement a change intervention. Rewarding through immediate and long-term benefits such as pay raises could help increase individuals’ hard work and desire to improve. Recognizing individuals who do well in the team increases their motivation, and employees feel appreciated (Woodward & Ruston,2022). Staff empowerment is also an integral step in managing the change. Ng and Tung (2018) note that staff empowerment entails providing resources required to acquire desired outcomes and increasing the desire and ability to implement change. It is difficult to convince staff to implement change that weighs down on them and provides no tangible benefits. Empowering the staff by fully sponsoring their education or training will help improve their efforts in implementing the change. Combining these strategies will ensure staff is motivated and quickly take up the courses leading to positive and desirable outcomes.
Collaboration is integral for the interdisciplinary team to produce the desired outcomes. Shared-decision making among professionals will increase interprofessional team collaboration. The executive team responsible for the change should have professionals from each team to ensure all professionals are involved (Michalsen et al., 2019). Defining and communicating these roles and responsibilities in the change process will also increase collaboration. Conflicts and poor relations arise when there is role overlap. Some roles are ignored or poorly performed because responsibility and accountability are not established. Defining roles and responsibilities eliminates hesitation and helps professionals implement interventions without fear and to the best of their abilities (Schots et al., 2020). Every professional will take up roles that coincide with their knowledge and experience hence better outcomes. These strategies will improve collaboration in the interdisciplinary team.
Conclusion
Mrs. Davis provided vital information on problems the healthcare institution is facing. Staff shortage is a problem that cuts across all health professionals, and an interdisciplinary team approach can thus help address this problem. Kurt Lewin’s change theory will provide a framework for implementing the interprofessional approach to solving the problem. Reward and recognition, staff empowerment, shared decision-making, and defining roles are leadership and collaborative strategies that will help implement an interprofessional approach to addressing the staff shortage problem. Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Assignment
References
Michalsen, A., Long, A. C., Ganz, F. D., White, D. B., Jensen, H. I., Metaxa, V., Metaxa, V., Hartog, C. S., Latour, J. M., Truog, R. D., Kesecioglu, J., Mahn, A. R., & Curtis, J. R. (2019). Interprofessional shared decision-making in the ICU: a systematic review and recommendations from an expert panel. Critical Care Medicine, 47(9), 1258-1266. https://doi.org/10.1097/CCM.0000000000003870
Ng, P. K., & Tung, B. (2018). The importance of reward and recognition system in the leadership of virtual project teams: qualitative research for the financial services sector. Journal of Transnational Management, 23(4), 198-214. https://doi.org/110.1097/ACM.0000000000002807
Schot, E., Tummers, L., & Noordegraaf, M. (2020). Working on working together. A systematic review of how healthcare professionals contribute to interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), 332-342. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1636007
Woodward, A., & Ruston, A. (2022). Empowerment of care home staff through effective collaboration with healthcare. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2022.2047015 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Assignment
