For this assessment, you will create a 2-4 page report on an interview you have conducted with a health care professional. You will identify an issue from the interview that could be improved with an interdisciplinary approach, and review best practices and evidence to address the issue.
Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification
With the pursuit for quality and safe healthcare delivery gaining pace, the healthcare system is implored to employ innovative measures that ensure quality and safety in their care operationalizations. The interdisciplinary approach in care delivery shifts the paradigm from individualistic approaches to collaborative care. Nurses are integral to interdisciplinary team operationalization. Their position in healthcare and role makes them invaluable to interdisciplinary healthcare teams. This paper reports an interview with a hospital nurse focusing on current issues affecting healthcare organizations that may be addressed through an interdisciplinary approach. Do you need urgent assignment help ? Reach out to us. We endeavor to assist you the best way possible.
Interview Summary
Ms. Wendy is the lead nurse at the diabetic clinic of Eastern Hospital. She has over 30 years of experience in nursing and over 10 years of experience in leadership. Her role includes making hiring and firing decisions, fostering professional nursing development, overseeing nursing units within the clinic, and organizing staff training. On the issues affecting the hospital, Ms. Wendy noted that coordinating the care continuum for diabetic patients transitioning to home-based care continues to be challenging for the hospital. She mentioned that the hospital has been at the forefront of monitoring diabetic patients enrolled in the hospital’s enrollment registry as a strategy to enhance care processes during the care continuum. With healthcare information technologies being available for healthcare utilization, the hospital is currently employing health information technologies such as telehealth to monitor their patients. On leadership role, Ms. Wendy noted that the healthcare leadership at the hospital has been at the forefront of coordinating care approaches for diabetics under the care continuum. She added that the hospital’s leadership trains their employees on healthcare technologies to enhance care delivery within the hospital clinics. Ms. Wendy also noted that the Eastern hospital has had a positive history with collaborative paradigms in its mainstream care provision. She mentioned that the diabetic clinic is slowly integrating this approach into patient monitoring and surveillance.
Issue Identification
The issue identified during the interview, as recounted by Ms. Wendy, was the coordination of care continuum services for patients transitioning to home-based care. The care continuum for patients with chronic disorders remains challenging for healthcare organizations. Fragmented care and poor care coordination among the available staff are challenges to the effective continuum of care for patients under long-term care. Fragmented care has been implicated in significant quality compromises in the care continuum, with therapeutic errors, avoidable hospital readmission, escalated healthcare costs, and unwarranted hospital visitations being the consequence (Pierucci et al., 2021). Care coordination through interdisciplinary teams remains critical during the care continuum for patients with chronic disorders transitioning to home-based care.
Change Theories that Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution
Change theories provide the groundwork for initiating and executing organizational changes effectively. Lewin’s change management model is an example of a change management theory that could inform an interdisciplinary solution for the issue identified. This change theory divides the organization’s change process into three basic steps: unfreeze, change, and freeze. In the unfreezing step, organizational members are prepared for the change by communicating the change process to them. This is followed by the actual implementation of the change process. In the refreeze step, a monitoring strategy is developed to prevent the organization from reverting to the older system of care operationalization. This theory provides an effective framework for integrating interdisciplinary approaches in care continuum services. Lalani et al. (2020) note that Lewin’s theory of change provides a framework for initiating and sustaining changes in care that integrate interdisciplinary approaches in care provision. The source used seems credible as it meets the currency, relevance, authority, purpose, and accuracy criteria.
Leadership remains essential for all healthcare changes. Effective leadership strategies that inform an interdisciplinary to the identified organizational issue include; effective communication to enhance organizational members’ awareness of the change process, working with a change model to execute a change proces