Scenario This assessment is the first of three related evaluations in which you will gather interview information (Assessment 2), design a proposal for interdisciplinary problem-solving (Assessment 3), and report on how a multidisciplinary improvement plan could be implemented in a place of practice (Assessment 4). At the end of the course, your interviewee will have a proposal plan based on the PDSA cycle that they could present to stakeholders to address an interdisciplinary problem in the workplace.

Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Good interdisciplinary collaboration is important in healthcare settings. Its absence within care settings can lead to failure to a health organization failing to meet its obligations to provide safe and quality care. Organization XX has been experiencing issues with its plan to create interdisciplinary teams to improve the health facility’s efficiency in delivering care services. I interviewed a member of the facility’s administrative staff to identify the interdisciplinary issue affecting the facility’s teams that could be resolved using an interdisciplinary approach.

The interviewee, the facility’s administrator, is the leader of all operations within the facility. She is responsible for ensuring that the facility delivers its services to the community and its clients as per its mandate. As part of a for-profit system, the facility’s administrator noted that she also manages the facility’s daily business functions, including managing staff and patient services, among other duties.

The interviewee pointed out that there have been issues of delays occurring in care due to a lack of good communication between the nurses and the physicians. She noted that the physicians hold the belief that the nurses work for them and they should always listen to them. The physicians also do not listen to the opinions of the nurses and will boss the nurses around. Further, there are cases of nurses delaying medication administration and other nursing care services due to illegible handwriting or the physicians failing to give clear directions on what care to be provided or how it should be delivered. Additionally, the interviewee added that there are some negative attitudes and beliefs among the nurses due to arguments on who is better at the nursing job or who works in a better department. This has been a cause of many conflicts the facility’s administrator has had to intervene and deal with in the last few months.

Issues Identified from the Interview

There are two issues that an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate for addressing. The first issue is poor communication between the nurses and the physicians. Poor communication means ineffective communication. Poor communication is a risk factor for the wrong procedures during treatment, delays in tests and delivery of care, medication errors, reduced quality and safety of care, poor resource use, and increase in care costs (Tiwary et al., 2019). The other issue identified is the lack of professional identity among the nursing staff. Lack of a professional means a lack of common attitudes, shared values, and beliefs, as well as a perception of skills competence among nurses.