Inter-professional collaboration is an important tool that contributes to the realization of optimum outcomes of care in health. Nurses and other healthcare providers have the critical responsibility of ensuring that teamwork is utilized for the promotion of safety, quality, and efficiency in patient care. Therefore, in this presentation, I reflect on one of my experiences with inter-professional collaboration, effects of poor collaboration and best leadership and interdisciplinary strategies that could have been used to improve the outcomes of inter-professional collaboration. I also reflect on the Villa case study to determine the ways in which better outcomes could have been achieved.
Reflection of Inter-professional Collaboration
An example of inter-professional collaboration activity that I participated in the organization I work with was the design and implementation of new electronic medical records for use in the organization. I worked with other healthcare providers in examining the ways in which new electronic medical records could improve the efficiency in patient care. I collaborated with them in the design phase activities that included setting goals and objectives, strategies and mission of the implementation. I also supported the implementation process by mentoring the nurses in the use of the system. I also collected information that was used in determining further needs and effectiveness of the system in addressing the needs of the organization.
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The inter-professional collaboration experience was successful in a number of ways. Firstly, there was the active involvement of the representatives from all the healthcare providers in the organization. Their active involvement minimized the possibilities of resistance to change since views and concerns of the healthcare providers were incorporated into the design and implementation process. There was also the use of effective teamwork strategies. The strategies included clear communication, allocation of roles and setting of realistic goals to guide the process (Johnson & Davey, 2019). There was also the provision of staff training on the use of the system. Training equipped the staffs with the required knowledge and skills, hence, minimizing the risk of resistance from them. The project was however unsuccessful in achieving some of the objectives due to a number of factors. Firstly, adequate time was not allocated for the implementation process. This led to the implementation process being hastened, which affected the outcomes. Secondly, there was resource inadequacy. The organization did not provide adequate financial and human resource support that was needed to achieve optimum outcomes of the project.
Effect of Poor Collaboration
Poor collaboration can result in inefficient management of human as well as financial resources. Firstly, poor collaboration results in demotivated workforce. The stakeholders involved in the implementation of a project lack the motivation to engage in activities that would contribute to the success of the whole process. Low morale/motivation leads to poor resource utilization and lack of adequate stakeholder involvement in the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of a project (Wensing et al., 2020). Poor collaboration also results in redundancies and duplication of tasks. The risk for redundancies and duplication of roles and tasks increases due to the stakeholders lacking adequate knowledge on their expected responsibilities as well as outcomes of the project. Poor collaboration also leads to the development of poor strategies for the project. Poor strategies result from the lack of active stakeholder involvement in the exploration of the ways in which the desired objectives of the project can be achieved. There is also the risk of the stakeholders failing to understand the alignment between the project objectives and the organizational mission (Francesca, 2020). Consequently, inefficient management of financial and human resources arises.
Best-Practice Leadership Strategies
One of the best-practice leadership strategy that can be used to improve the ability of an interdisciplinary team to achieve its goals is training. Leaders of interdisciplinary teams should ensure that their team members have the required knowledge and skills through training. Training opportunities for continuous personal and professional development is important to enable the management of potential and actual issues affecting the implementation of change (Francesca, 2020). The other leadership strategy is setting realistic and achievable
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