NURS 4010: Interprofessional Collaboration Reflection for Vila Health ® Activity
Good afternoon everyone and welcome to my collaboration and leadership reflection video for NURS4010: Leading People, Processes, and Organizations in Interprofessional Practice. Collaboration and leadership are important for the realization of optimum organizational outcomes. Therefore, in this video, I reflect on an interdisciplinary collaboration experience noting the ways it was successful and unsuccessful in achieving its outcomes, the effects of poor collaboration, and the best-leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration strategies for teams to achieve their goals.
Emotional intelligent is important in nursing practices because it helps to understand people better (Whitney, 2018). Self-awareness is one of the important elements in emotional intelligent and it is the capacity to notice and comprehend your own feelings. Being conscious of the impact of your actions, moods, and emotions on other people goes beyond simply being aware of your own feelings. Developing self-awareness as a leader will strengthen not only individual performance but organizational performance as well. Ultimately, the imm
ense amount of understanding, trustworthiness and wisdom that self-aware leaders possess equips them with critical skills for success.
Reflection
An experience for reflection in this assignment is the implement partment. The system was being adopted to achieve the desired organizational outcomes that included efficiency, safety, and quality in the care process. The healthcare providers working in the emergency department, including physicians, nurses, radiographers, and pharmacists were tasked with the responsibility of ensuring the successful adoption of the new system.
The staff formed a team that was responsible for the ation of a new electronic medical records system in the emergency department. I work as an emergency room nurse in a busy tertiary institution. Throughout my practice, I have experienced change initiatives in my department. The most significant I would like to talk about is the implementation of a new EMR system in our deassessment, planning, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of the new system. The team guided the staff in the adoption of the system. They developed processes that were needed for the success of the process and indicators for regular assessment. The team was also keen to incorporate best practices to ensure the successful implementation of the system. For example, they strengthened open communication between the staff and management, active participation in system development, design, and implementation, and training staff about the use of the new system. Staff also had the freedom to express their issues, views, and concerns about the new system. The use of such approaches in change implementation promotes ownership and empowerment of the staff, hence, project sustainability (Moore et al., 2019). The adoption of the above interventions by the team led to the successful implementation of the new EMR in the department.
Despite the success, the implementation process experienced some challenges. One of them was the issue of coordinating the different healthcare providers involved in the use of the new system. Staff such as physicians and nurse practitioners were hard to be engaged since they always complained of a high workload. Physicians also felt that the new system was not needed, as it failed to address the crucial issues facing them in the department. Strategies that included active participation, open communication, and aligning the new system with their expectations were adopted to overcome the challenges.
Effect of Poor Collaboration
The teamwork experience in the implementation of the EMR system made me understand that poor collaboration can result in inefficient management of human and financial resources in many ways. First, poor collaboration results in the loss of financial resources in an organization. Financial resources that could have been used to promote the effective performance of the existing systems are lost. Poor collaboration also leads to the misuse of human resources. There is the wastage of skilled labor that could have been used to drive the desired organizational excellence. Poor collaboration also affects the morale of the employees involved in a project (Al-Ajarmeh et al., n.d.). The staff loose interest in change projects, limiting the introduction of innovative practices to transform organizational systems and processes.
Poor collaboration also affects the realization of the desired organizational vision and mission. The misuse of resources used in projects that suffer from poor collaboration delays the realization of the set organizational objectives. Additional outcomes include poor performance and competitiveness of the organization in its markets (Moore et al., 2019). Poor collaboration also wastes time that could have been used to enhance organizational performance and productivity. For example, there is a waste of time that the staff could have used to improve the existing organizational systems and processes (Hofmeyer & Taylor, 2021). Therefore, organizations should adopt interventions that aim at enhancing collaboration in the implementation of any change initiative.
Best-Practice Leadership Strategies
I learned from my experience with the EMR project that nurses and other healthcare providers can adopt several best-leadership strategies to improve the interdisciplinary team’s ability to achieve its goals. One of the strategies is defining and communicating the vision of the project consistently. Leaders should ensure that the team members are informed about the vision of the project. They should communicate the vision clearly and consistently to motivate the team members to adopt behaviors that align with the project outcomes. Leaders should also encourage the recognition of team members’ contributions to the success of the project (Dahlke et al., 2020). Employee recognition improves their motivation to identify innovative ways to achieve the desired outcomes. Rewards such as money or verbal recognition of the employee contribution boost their morale to achieve beyond the set goals in the project.
The other best-practice leadership strategy is delegating responsibilities. Leaders should aim at ensuring that the team members have the competencies to undertake complex project tasks. They achieve this by delegating some of the project activities to the team members. Delegation builds confidence and competence among the team members to engage in additional roles that contribute to project success. The last strategy is committing to ensuring the continued development of the team members. Leaders ensure that team members receive training and educational opportunities for their competency development. Training and education empower team members to be proactively involved in addressing crucial organizational needs (Turkelson et al., 2020). As a result, staff can be actively involved in interdisciplinary projects in the organization.
Best-Practice Interdisciplinary Collaboration Strategies
I also learned from my experience with the EMR project that team members should adopt best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategies to achieve their goals and work together more effectively. One of the best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategies that can be explored is promoting open communication. The team members should express their ideas, issues, and views without fear of intimidation. Open, transparent communication enhanced collaboration since team members feel valued and empowered to make crucial decisions in an activity (Miles & Scott, 2019). The other strategy is incorporating activities that contribute to team building. Team building activities such as shark tanks, developing magazine stories, and the use of question-master enhance the engagement of team members in project activities.
The other best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategy is providing regular feedback to the team members. Regular feedback on the achievements and challenges the team experiences is important in informing them. Regular feedback strengthens the adoption of effective behaviors that contribute to the overall success of the team activities. The other strategy is rewarding performance. Team leaders should explore effective rewards to enhance collaboration among team members (Fitzpatrick, 2021). Rewards motivate the team members to play a proactive role in team activities for optimum collaboration.
The other best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategy is strengthening respect and trust among the team members. Effective collaboration is achieved when team members feel that their input to the project is respected. Team members should be encouraged to acknowledge the role that each plays in ensuring project success. Lack of respect and trust lowers the participation of the team members in project activities. Task prioritization is the other approach that can be adopted to increase interdisciplinary collaboration and outcomes. Task prioritization ensures the efficient realization of the set project outcomes. It also motivates the team members to engage in activities that have a direct effect on the project outcomes. The last strategy is ensuring team members understand their roles and responsibilities in a project. Team members should have unique roles they play to achieve the overall outcomes of a project (Turkelson et al., 2020). A vague understanding of the roles results in role duplication and inefficient utilization of resources. Therefore, assigning roles and responsibilities to team members increases the participation of team members in project activities for optimum collaboration.
Vila Health
The Vila Health case study shows the importance of interdisciplinary collaboration in the implementation of change projects in healthcare. The case study shows the effect of inadequate interdisciplinary collaboration in the implementation of change. The EHR project was implemented with limited collaboration between the facility administration and upper management. The consequence included the poor integration of the Healthix in the organization. The interventions adopted by the key stakeholders in the project were ineffective. First, there was limited involvement of the staff that was to use and manage the system. Their limited involvement reduced the rate of the implementation process. Active stakeholder involvement in any change project is important to ensure stakeholder empowerment, project ownership, and sustainability of outcomes (Miles & Scott, 2019).
Second, the communication approach adopted was ineffective. There was no open communication among the project stakeholders, leading to the lack of consideration of the stakeholder needs in the process. Open communication in change process is important in ensuring that the needs, views, and concerns of the change adopters are addressed. It also leads to outcomes such as enhanced responsibility and transparency from the targeted populations (Turkelson et al., 2020). Training was also not offered leading to the staff lacking the knowledge and skills needed to run the new system. The IT department was also not involved in the rolling out of the system, which made it difficult to sustain system use for the organization. Cumulatively, the above issues affected the effective implementation of the project in the organization.
Conclusion
In summary, interdisciplinary collaboration is important in healthcare. Interdisciplinary collaboration contributes to optimum outcomes that include safety, quality, and efficiency. Nurses and other healthcare providers can explore several best-practice strategies to enhance interdisciplinary collaboration. They include open communication, provision of regular feedback, prioritization of tasks, and rewarding performance. They can also adopt best-leadership strategies that include open communication, rewarding performance, delegating roles and responsibilities, and promoting personal and professional development through training and education. Therefore, I believe that my participation in the EMR project increased my understanding of the relevance and need of the above strategies in nursing practice.
References
Al-Ajarmeh, D. O., Rayan, A. H., Eshah, N. F., & Al-Hamdan, Z. M. (n.d.). Nurse–nurse collaboration and performance among nurses in intensive care units. Nursing in Critical Care, n/a(n/a). https://doi.org/10.1111/nicc.12745
Dahlke, S., Hunter, K. F., Kalogirou, M. R., Negrin, K., Fox, M., & Wagg, A. (2020). Perspectives about Interprofessional Collaboration and Patient-Centred Care. Canadian Journal on Aging / La Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement, 39(3), 443–455. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0714980819000539
Fitzpatrick, J. J. (2021). Narrative Nursing: Empowering Nurse Leaders. Nursing Administration Quarterly, 45(4), 324–329. https://doi.org/10.1097/NAQ.0000000000000486
Hofmeyer, A., & Taylor, R. (2021). Strategies and resources for nurse leaders to use to lead with empathy and prudence so they understand and address sources of anxiety among nurses practising in the era of COVID-19. Journal of Clinical Nursing, 30(1–2), 298–305. https://doi.org/10.1111/jocn.15520
Miles, J. M., & Scott, E. S. (2019). A New Leadership Development Model for Nursing Education. Journal of Professional Nursing, 35(1), 5–11. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.profnurs.2018.09.009
Moore, J., Prentice, D., Crawford, J., Lankshear, S., Limoges, J., & Rhodes, K. (2019). Collaboration among registered nurses and practical nurses in acute care hospitals: A scoping review. Nursing Forum, 54(3), 376–385. https://doi.org/10.1111/nuf.12339
Turkelson, C., Yorke, A. M., Keiser, M., Smith, L., & Gilbert, G. E. (2020). Promoting Interprofessional Communication with Virtual Simulation and Deliberate Practice. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 46, 30–39. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecns.2020.03.008