Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Nurses encounter issues of varying magnitudes while providing patient care and interacting with other professionals. Awareness of these issues is vital for health care leaders to offer evidence-based solutions. Due to the complexity of issues, resources available, and situations, health professionals use different approaches to handle practice problems. Interviewing individuals in the health profession gives nurses a detailed overview of the issues hampering patient care, how they are experienced, and potential solutions. The purpose of this paper is to identify an issue from an interview with a health professional, the appropriateness of the interdisciplinary approach, and best practices and evidence to address the issue.

Interview Summary

My interview with a nursing colleague focused on issues hindering the quality and safety of patient care that could be better addressed with a team approach. My colleague views her workplace as one characterized by a culture of innovation since creativity and evidence-based practice are supported. The management is committed to change to address systemic issues that have hampered care quality in the past. As a leader in a dynamic workplace, my colleague’s roles include assigning tasks and supervising procedures to ensure patients in the facility receive high-quality care. Glaring issues where lasting solutions are needed include the underutilization of telehealth, a lack of adequate self-care opportunities for nurses, and medical errors from new graduate nurses. She also has positive experience with collaboration since she has teamed up with other professionals in the past to monitor patients remotely.

Assignment: Capella Health Professional Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Paper

Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Two weeks ago, I interviewed a female staff nurse working in the medical-surgical unit of a general hospital.  The nurse is a clinical nurse leader (CNL) who engages in direct patient care in the unit and provides nursing leadership. The CNL’s primary duties include care coordination, team leadership, facilitating transitions of care, outcomes measurement, interprofessional communication, implementation of best intervention based on evidence, risk assessment, and quality improvement. The purpose of this assignment is to summarize the information obtained from the interview and identify an issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

Interview Summary

The CNL highlighted various patient care issues encountered in the medical-surgical unit. These include patient safety issues like diagnostic errors, medication errors, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), discharge errors, antibiotic resistance, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and falls especially among geriatrics. The CNL mentioned that diagnostic errors led to delays in patient recovery and treatment as well as, adverse outcomes, patient suffering, and mortalities. Besides, the CNL reported that most medication errors stemmed from human errors leading to patients receiving the wrong drugs and dosage. The CNL attributed the ADRs to drug-to-drug interactions that occur in patients on multiple medications. Polypharmacy is a major problem, especially in patients with comorbid medical conditions and some find themselves taking 5-10 medications at a go. Moreover, the CNL talked about discharge errors whereby patients are not provided with adequate or appropriate discharge instructions leading to increased readmission rates in the unit. Concerning antibiotic resistance, the CNL states that there has been an emergence of new bacteria strains that are resistant to antibiotics. The problem stems from antibiotics overuse and misuse, poor infection control, and ineffective prevention strategies.

The CNL mentioned that the hospital’s management team has implemented various measures to curb the above issues. This includes providing regular staff training on quality improvement and patient safety. The hospital has also developed policies to address medication and discharge errors as well as infection prevention measures to control HAIs and antibiotic resistance.  The actions taken by the management have partially been effective in addressing the identified issues but there needs more evidence-based interventions to further reduce the prevalence of these issues and their effect on patients. The CNL mentioned that she had previously participated in various interprofessional team collaborations meant to improve health outcomes in specific patient populations.  She had a positive experience with the interprofessional teams but stated that they would have been much better if effective collaborative measures were implemented.

Issue Identification

Adverse drug reactions secondary to polypharmacy-related drug interactions can benefit from an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach. The patients most affected by ADRs secondary to polypharmacy are geriatrics above 65 years especially those with multiple chronic illnesses. The CNL mentioned that polypharmacy hinders medication adherence among patients and is associated with risk of falls, poor nutritional status, and cognitive impairment, which reduced patients’ quality of life (Osanlou et al., 2022). Polypharmacy often occurs when different specialists prescribe a drug for the condition they are managing without reviewing a patient’s medication history (Osanlou et al., 2022). Thus, an interdisciplinary approach would help address the issue by having the different healthcare professionals work together in patient management and developing patients’ treatment plans.

Change Theories and Leadership Strategies

Rogers’ five-step Innovation Diffusion Theory can be employed in developing an interdisciplinary solution to address the issue of ADRs secondary to polypharmacy. The theory elucidates how a person progresses from having knowledge of an innovation to confirming the decision to implement or reject the idea (Udod & Wagner, 2018). The theory’s five stages are Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation, and Confirmation. The theory stresses the significance of engaging key persons interested in adopting the innovation, capitalizing on group strengths, and mitigating factors that hinder the process.

Leadership strategies that can inform an interdisciplinary solution to the issue of ADRs include motivation, interpersonal communication, creating a vision, team building, and innovation.  Both intrinsic and extrinsic motivation measures should be adopted to motivate the team to work collaboratively in identifying and implementing a solution (Buljac-Samardzic et al., 2020). The leader should use interpersonal communication strategies that foster intra-team communication, collaborative decision-making, and effective team processes. Furthermore, there needs to be a clear vision, role, and purpose for the team, which steers the direction of the team.

Assignment: Capella Health Professional Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Paper

Question Description

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.As a baccalaureate-prepared nurse, your participation and leadership in interdisciplinary teams will be vital to the health outcomes for your patients and organization. One way to approach designing an improvement project is to use the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle. The Institute for Healthcare Improvement describes it thus:
The Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) cycle is shorthand for testing a change in the real work setting—by planning it, trying it, observing the results, and acting on what is learned. This is the scientific method adapted for action-oriented learning…Essentially, the PDSA cycle helps you test out change ideas on a smaller scale before evaluating the results and making adjustments before potentially launching into a somewhat larger scale project (n.d.).
You might also recognize that the PDSA cycle resembles the nursing process. The benefit of gaining experience with this model of project design is that it provides nurses with an opportunity to ideate and lead improvements. For this assessment, you will not be implementing all of the PDSA cycle. Instead, you are being asked to interview a health care professional of your choice to determine what kind of interdisciplinary problem he or she is experiencing or has experienced in the workplace. This interview, in Assessment 2, will inform the research that you will conduct to propose a plan for interdisciplinary collaboration in Assessment 3.It would be an excellent choice to complete the PDSA Cycle activity prior to developing the report. The activity consists of four questions that create the opportunity to check your understanding of best-practices related to each stage of the PDSA cycle. The information gained from completing this formative will promote your success with the Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification report. This will take just a few minutes of your time and is not graded.
Reference
Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). How to improve. Retrieved from http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/HowtoImprove/de…
DEMONSTRATION OF PROFICIENCY
Competency 2: Explain how interdisciplinary collaboration can be used to achieve desired patient and systems outcomes.
Summarize an interview focused on past or current issues at a health care organization.
Describe collaboration approaches from the literature that could be relevant in establishing or improving an interdisciplinary team to address an organizational issue.
Competency 3: Describe ways to incorporate evidence-based practice within an interdisciplinary team.
Identify an issue from an interview for which an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.
Competency 4: Explain how change management theories and leadership strategies can enable interdisciplinary teams to achieve specific organizational goals.
Describe change theories and a leadership strategy that could help develop an interdisciplinary solution to an organizational issue.
Competency 5: Apply professional, scholarly, evidence-based communication strategies to impact patient, interdisciplinary team, and systems outcomes.
Communicate with writing that is clear, logically organized, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, using current APA style.
PROFESSIONAL CONTEXT
This assessment will introduce the Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA) Model to create change in an organization. By interviewing a colleague of your choice, you will begin gathering information about an interprofessional collaboration problem that your colleague is experiencing or has experienced. You will identify a change theory and leadership strategies to help solve this problem.
SCENARIO
This assessment is the first of three related assessments in which you will gather interview information (Assessment 2); design a proposal for interdisciplinary problem-solving, (Assessment 3); and report on how an interdisciplinary 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 he or she could present to stakeholders to address an interdisciplinary problem in the workplace.For this assessment, you will need to interview a health care professional such as a fellow learner, nursing colleague, administrator, business partner, or another appropriate person who could provide you with sufficient information regarding an organizational problem that he or she is experiencing or has experienced, or an area where they are seeking improvements. Consult the Interview Guide [DOCX] for an outline of how to prepare and the types of information you will need to complete this project successfully.Remember: this is just the first in a series of three assessments.
INSTRUCTIONS
For this assessment, you will report on the information that you collected in your interview, analyzing the interview data and identifying a past or current issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach. This could be an issue that has not been addressed by an interdisciplinary approach or one that could benefit from improvements related to the interdisciplinary approach currently being used. Additionally, you will start laying the foundation for your Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal (Assessment 3) by researching potential change theories, leadership strategies, and collaboration approaches that could be relevant to issue you have identified.When submitting your plan, use the Interview and Issue Identification Template [DOCX], which will help you to stay organized and concise. As you complete the template, make sure you use APA format for in-text citations for the evidence and best practices that are informing your plan, as well as for the reference list at the end.Additionally, be sure to address the following, which corresponds to the grading criteria in the scoring guide. Please study the scoring guide carefully so you understand what is needed for a distinguished score.
Summarize an interview focused on past or current issues at a health care organization.
Identify an issue from an interview for which an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach would be appropriate.
Describe potential change theories and a leadership strategies that could inform an interdisciplinary solution to an organizational issue.
Describe collaboration approaches from the literature that could facilitate establishing or improving an interdisciplinary team to address an organizational issue.
Communicate with writing that is clear, logically organized, and professional, with correct grammar and spelling, and using current APA style.
ADDITIONAL REQUIREMENTS
Length of submission: Use the provided template. Most submissions will be 2 to 4 pages in length. Be sure to include a reference page at the end of the plan.
Number of references: Cite a minimum of 3 sources of scholarly or professional evidence that support your central ideas. Resources should be no more than 5 years old.
APA formatting: Make sure that in-text citations and reference list follow current APA style.
Portfolio Prompt: Remember to save the final assessment to your ePortfolio so that you may refer to it as you complete the final Capstone course.

ORDER NOW FOR AN ORIGINAL PAPER ASSIGNMENT: Assignment: Capella Health Professional Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification Paper

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

ADDITIONAL INSTRUCTIONS FOR THE CLASS

Discussion Questions (DQ)

Initial responses to the DQ should address all components of the questions asked, include a minimum of one scholarly source, and be at least 250 words.
Successful responses are substantive (i.e., add something new to the discussion, engage others in the discussion, well-developed idea) and include at least one scholarly source.
One or two sentence responses, simple statements of agreement or “good post,” and responses that are off-topic will not count as substantive. Substantive responses should be at least 150 words.
I encourage you to incorporate the readings from the week (as applicable) into your responses.
Weekly Participation

Your initial responses to the mandatory DQ do not count toward participation and are graded separately.
In addition to the DQ responses, you must post at least one reply to peers (or me) on three separate days, for a total of three replies.
Participation posts do not require a scholarly source/citation (unless you cite someone else’s work).
Part of your weekly participation includes viewing the weekly announcement and attesting to watching it in the comments. These announcements are made to ensure you understand everything that is due during the week.
APA Format and Writing Quality

Familiarize yourself with APA format and practice using it correctly. It is used for most writing assignments for your degree. Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for APA paper templates, citation examples, tips, etc. Points will be deducted for poor use of APA format or absence of APA format (if required).
Cite all sources of information! When in doubt, cite the source. Paraphrasing also requires a citation.
I highly recommend using the APA Publication Manual, 6th edition.
Use of Direct Quotes

I discourage overutilization of direct quotes in DQs and assignments at the Masters’ level and deduct points accordingly.
As Masters’ level students, it is important that you be able to critically analyze and interpret information from journal articles and other resources. Simply restating someone else’s words does not demonstrate an understanding of the content or critical analysis of the content.
It is best to paraphrase content and cite your source.
LopesWrite Policy

For assignments that need to be submitted to LopesWrite, please be sure you have received your report and Similarity Index (SI) percentage BEFORE you do a “final submit” to me.
Once you have received your report, please review it. This report will show you grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that can easily be fixed. Take the extra few minutes to review instead of getting counted off for these mistakes.
Review your similarities. Did you forget to cite something? Did you not paraphrase well enough? Is your paper made up of someone else’s thoughts more than your own?
Visit the Writing Center in the Student Success Center, under the Resources tab in LoudCloud for tips on improving your paper and SI score.
Late Policy

The university’s policy on late assignments is 10% penalty PER DAY LATE. This also applies to late DQ replies.
Please communicate with me if you anticipate having to submit an assignment late. I am happy to be flexible, with advance notice. We may be able to work out an extension based on extenuating circumstances.
If you do not communicate with me before submitting an assignment late, the GCU late policy will be in effect.
I do not accept assignments that are two or more weeks late unless we have worked out an extension.
As per policy, no assignments are accepted after the last day of class. Any assignment submitted after midnight on the last day of class will not be accepted for grading.
Communication

Communication is so very important. There are multiple ways to communicate with me:
Questions to Instructor Forum: This is a great place to ask course content or assignment questions. If you have a question, there is a good chance one of your peers does as well. This is a public forum for the class.
Individual Forum: This is a private forum to ask me questions or send me messages. This will be checked at least once every 24 hours.