For this assessment you will create a 2-4 page plan proposal for an interprofessional team to collaborate and work toward driving improvements in the organizational issue you identified in the second assessment.

Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal

Interview Summary

I had the opportunity to conduct an interview with the lead family nurse practitioner (FNP) at a rural medical health center. The interview aimed to identify issues within the facility that can be resolved through an interdisciplinary approach. The medical health center provides primary healthcare services majorly to the local community. The FNP I interviewed doubles as the medical center’s administrator and primary health care provider. The facility has been in operation for the last 18 years in which the interviewee has been its administrator for 12 years. The medical center was established to ease the congestion at the general public hospital in the local town. The facility offers limited services, including medical, dental, vision, podiatry, and mental and behavioral health services. All major surgical or specialized treatments are referred to the main hospital in town.

As the primary care provider at the medical center, the FNP is the first care provider at the point of contact. She also ensures that the patients continue receiving appropriate care. She also coordinates the available nurses to help develop good relationships with the patients and the local community. As the medical center’s administrator, the FNP manages all of the facility’s functions, staff, and resources.

The FNP noted that the facility was facing a number of problems that affected its ability to deliver services to the patients and the community efficiently. Most of the problems were linked to the lack of sufficient staffing at the facility. The FNP also noted that the shortage of qualified nurses and physicians requires them to perform roles beyond their scope of practice. This has made some nurses feel worn out, while others have openly expressed their dissatisfaction. There is also a growing strain between physicians and nurses working as primary care providers. The physicians are against this move despite it easing the strain on their roles. The medical center has been operating under strain with insufficient resources and funding. The FNP is also under pressure to work overtime to help with service delivery. The previous management quit after five years when things got hard. The FNP is open to adopting any leadership strategies and interdisciplinary solutions that will improve service delivery and efficiency of the medical center.

Issue Identification

The identified major issues identified include:

• The shortage of healthcare professionals, including nurses and physicians,
• A poor work relationship between nurses and physicians,
• Poor funding.

Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Announcing the need for change and communicating the change, and ensuring everyone is fully involved in the change process is a challenge for the majority of healthcare leaders. Research evidence notes that most healthcare professionals view the communication of the change and its motive as the first step toward a successful change process (Nilsen et al., 2020). From Fagerström’s (2021) perspective, a leader leading change within a clinical context leads relationships, processes, and cultures to achieve the best patient outcomes. Kotter’s Eight-Step Change Model is the best change theory that efficiently combines these factors of patient outcomes in nursing. The steps in Kotter’s model are first, creating a sense of change urgency, forming a team to guide change, creating a vision and plan for change, communicating the plan and change, eliminating barriers, setting milestones, building on the achieved change, and establish the change within the organization’s culture.

The paper by (Nilsen et al., 2020) is relevant as it explains the characteristics of successful change n healthcare and the importance of stakeholder influence on the change process. It is credible as it has been published in the peer-reviewed journal of BMC health services research published by Biomed Central. The article by Fagerström (2021) is relevant as it explores how change can be managed when implementing new nursing roles. It is relevant as it is published as a chapter in a book focused on models of implementing advanced practice models and the importance of leadership during the change and implementation of new nursing roles.