NURS-FPX 4010 Assessment 1 Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Video Example 1

Hello everyone, my name is ………. And I will be presenting my perspective on interprofessional leadership and collaboration within the nursing practice space. Interprofessional collaboration encompasses an array of healthcare specialists with discrete skills, talents, and expertise to participate in patient care (Hlongwa & Rispel, 2021). Interprofessional collaboration is often used as a method of solving numerous healthcare problems and complex issues.

Interprofessional collaboration in healthcare has been associated with enormous benefits, including a reduction in medical errors, improvement of patient care and outcomes, rapid initiation of treatment, reduction of healthcare inefficiencies and costs, and improvement in staff relationships and job satisfaction (Hlongwa & Rispel, 2021).

However, effective collaboration necessitates effective leadership to influence and communicate change. This video will reflect on an interdisciplinary collaboration I engaged in, noting how it was successful and unsuccessful, the relationship between poor collaboration and management of human and financial resources, and leadership and collaboration strategies that can enhance the achievement of goals.

As a registered nurse working in preventive medicine, It was noted that there was an increase in hospitalization and morbidity related to sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. Sexually transmitted diseases were mainly prevalent in adolescents and young adults, while tuberculosis spanned across all age groups but largely affected middle-aged to older adults. These conditions sounded an alarm as both conditions are preventable.

Consequently, an interprofessional collaboration team was formed that consisted of physicians, nurses, pharmacists, nutritionists, and community health workers to address these concerns. This team of specialists had several meetings and formulated a comprehensive individualized care management plan. This care plan was drafted following a series of conversations with the affected patients, and it consisted of patient education, active surveillance, and follow-up. The implementation of the care plan resulted in a significant reduction in cases of sexually transmitted diseases and TB as well as their related morbidity. Similarly, a significant reduction in healthcare costs was observed.

As part of this team, several factors contributed to the success. First was the selection of an appropriate team leader. A physician was selected who communicated the vision and the change initiative. The physician was effective as he had a vast background knowledge regarding sexually transmitted diseases and tuberculosis. As an effective leader, the physician spearheaded all functions of the team and ensured that all members of the interprofessional collaboration team were motivated and committed to change. Secondly is careful planning. The interprofessional team knew that the prosperity of this initiative was largely dependent on understanding and eliminating the initiating, precipitating, and maintaining factors.

For instance, sexually transmitted among adolescents is a public health concern and is usually a result of risky sexual behaviors precipitated by factors such as drug and alcohol abuse, social media, and peer pressure. Consequently, patient education was directed toward these factors. Additionally, the team communicated effectively. According to Schimith et al. (2021), effective communication is critical for any teamwork as it builds trust and ensures cohesiveness. Furthermore, the involvement of patients in decision-making led to the development of a change initiative that was vastly accepted, which increased the success of the team. Finally, the team deployed delegation of duties, reducing workload and encouraging all team members to remain positive and motivated.

However, the interprofessional team failed in some aspects. For instance, some team members failed to create a good rapport with patients and, therefore, could not truly identify and elicit information regarding the presence of sexually transmitted diseases in some adolescents. Similarly, some interprofessional collaboration team members initially misdiagnosed patients with TB as pneumonia patients due to similar presentation and failure to elicit comprehensive history, which delayed the initiation of treatment and increased the chances of spreading the infection. Finally, a lack of proper documentation was also observed, leading to a loss of follow-up. Consequently, the outcomes of the interprofessional collaboration could have been much better had the aforementioned weaknesses addressed.

Regarding the scenario in the Vila Health Activity, penurious and ineffective communication between the IT management and the nurses who were the utilizers of the computer system Healthix is evident. For example, nurses lament the program’s impervious nature and user unfriendliness. Furthermore, the recruitment of a coach is still ineffective as the medical staff still had trouble using the system following the completion of the course. This scenario is a true manifestation of the baseless allocation of human resources and financial mismanagement as a result of ineffective communication. Likewise, poor communication results in frustration, stress, mistrust, absenteeism, mistrust, and decreased productivity of the employees, hence unsuitable utilization of human resources (Wieke et al., 2021). Finally, poor communication precipitates poor decision-making and legal wrangles that may result in a waste of finances.

Leadership Strategies

Leadership strategies are crucial for the prosperity of any interprofessional collaboration. All leaders must enhance collaboration to achieve the most favorable outcomes in the healthcare industry. Numerous leadership strategies have been highlighted in the literature. Nevertheless, effective communication and teamwork are among the most vital leadership strategies that foster interprofessional collaboration. Schimith et al. (2021) define the role of effective communication as essential to building trust, a central prerequisite for all members of the interdisciplinary team.

Interdisciplinary teams consist of diverse individuals with abundant tasks and attributes; hence effective communication ensures the provision of comprehensive care and care coordination. For instance, research by Schimith et al. (2021) identified interprofessional communication as the key to interprofessional collaboration and effective care coordination in healthcare. Meanwhile, teamwork is a critical strategy for fostering interdisciplinary collaboration.

According to Skyberg and Innvaer (2020), most patients have different needs, which can only be accomplished comprehensively by a collection of talents and skills from heterogeneous healthcare providers. Finally, being open to change and innovation is a vital leadership strategy that stretches interprofessional collaboration. The Healthcare industry is ever-growing and dynamic, characterized by widespread research and innovative ideas from several stakeholders.

Additionally, change and innovation are fundamental to evidence-based practice and quality patient care. Therefore, leaders must identify problematic areas and encourage change to enhance the cohesiveness as well as the efficiency of their followers. Consequently, in an endeavor to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration, leaders must champion effective communication, teamwork, change, and innovation.

Collaboration Strategies

Leadership and collaboration strategies are more often than not difficult to separate. Collaboration intersects different individuals to function cohesively toward the attainment of a shared goal. This process entails strategies such as shared decision-making, delegation, and encouraging feedback. Shared decision-making enhances collaboration as team members feel and own the decisions made (Elwyn, 2021). Additionally, collaborative teams are composed of various individuals with different skills, backgrounds, talents, and knowledge.

Consequently, shared decision-making offers a structured way of incorporating evidence, values, and preferences (Elwyn, 2021). According to Elwyn (2021), this process supports conversations leading to informed decisions that are congruent with what matters most to patients and team members. On the other hand, delegation is the act of empowering one to act for another (Beckett et al., 2021). Beckett et al. (2021) highlight that delegation enhances collaboration only when principled. Elemental principles of the nursing delegation include the right person, the right task, the right circumstance, the right communication, and the right supervision.

Delegation ensures that healthcare professionals are not overwhelmed with tasks as they practice in areas of their expertise. In a study by Wagner (2018), delegation considerably contributed to collaboration, patient satisfaction, job satisfaction, and enhanced patient outcomes. According to Ramani et al. (2019), interdisciplinary collaboration is a vigorous process that is vulnerable to change periodically due to the variety of members. Consequently, incessantly seeking opinions and feedback from team members is cardinal to effective collaboration. Ramani et al. (2019) further encourage team leaders to incorporate positive feedback and address all issues of team members in the best possible way to maintain and enhance collaboration.

Conclusion

Interdisciplinary collaboration is central to enhancing enhanced patient outcomes as well as the quality of patient care. This collaboration is essential to solving problems and complex issues encountered in healthcare. Further, interprofessional collaboration offers an effective channel for communicating and executing change in healthcare practice. Effective collaboration must be coupled with effective leadership as well as collaborative strategies. Leadership strategies include effective communication, teamwork, and change and innovation. On the other hand, collaborative strategies go hand in hand with leadership strategies and include shared decision-making, delegation, and encouraging feedback.

References

Beckett, C. D., Zadvinskis, I. M., Dean, J., Iseler, J., Powell, J. M., & Buck-Maxwell, B. (2021). An integrative review of team nursing and delegation: Implications for nurse staffing during COVID-19. Worldviews on Evidence-Based Nursing, 18(4), 251–260. https://doi.org/10.1111/wvn.12523

Elwyn, G. (2021). Shared decision making: What is the work? Patient Education and Counseling, 104(7), 1591–1595. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pec.2020.11.032

Hlongwa, P., & Rispel, L. C. (2021). Interprofessional collaboration among health professionals in cleft lip and palate treatment and care in the public health sector of South Africa. Human Resources for Health, 19(1). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12960-021-00566-3

Schimith, M. D., Cezar-Vaz, M. R., Xavier, D. M., & Cardoso, L. S. (2021). Communication in health and inter-professional collaboration in the care for children with chronic conditions. Revista Latino-Americana de Enfermagem, 29, e3390. https://doi.org/10.1590/1518-8345.4044.3390

Skyberg, H. L., & Innvaer, S. (2020). Dynamics of interprofessional teamwork: Why three logics are better than one. Social Science & Medicine (1982), 265(113472), 113472. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113472

Wagner, E. A. (2018). Improving patient care outcomes through better delegation-communication between nurses and assistive personnel. Journal of Nursing Care Quality, 33(2), 187–193. https://doi.org/10.1097/NCQ.0000000000000282