Use the context of the organization from your interview to develop a viable plan for an interdisciplinary team to address the issue you identified. Define a specific organizational or patient outcome

Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

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I interviewed Jane White, a registered nurse (RN) who works at Bedford Memorial Hospital in the Emergency department (ED) where she has served as a staff member. Bedford Memorial Hospital is a facility located in Virginia that offers both in-patient and outpatient care services. Jane has five years of nursing experience and currently works in the ED where she provides front-line care to patients and helps physicians through triage decisions while collaborating with another healthcare team to promote quality care that meets patient needs.

In the course of the interview, Jane revealed multiple healthcare issues affecting ED operations with a special focus on transitions between emergency admissions and hospital wards. She observed that the transfer of patient information between units resulted in many cases of communication breakdown leading to delays in treatment, reporting medical errors, and increased patient dissatisfaction. The hospital utilizes electronic health records (EHR) to enhance communication through its system. Still, it fails to eliminate communication gaps that stem from unclear documentation as well as delays in updating the information.

Bedford Memorial Hospital leadership attempted to address the problem through the adoption of standard handoff procedures. Staff members struggle to stick with standard medical procedures when stress levels become high and instead, they continue to rely on their usual ways to talk with each other. Organizational culture of collaboration was present and clinicians favored collaborative work practices culture of sharing ideas, skills, mutual respect, and open communication. However, challenges in team coordination continued to be experienced due to the quick-paced nature of the emergency department.

The Lewin’s Change Management Model presents itself as a suitable concept to handle this concern in the facility. The three-stage change framework named Lewin’s Change Management Model moves through unfreezing then changing and ends with refreezing (El Bizri et al., 2024). The healthcare providers work together in the freezing stage to recognize existing challenges and make all staff members understand the need to adopt standardized handoff procedures. In the second stage which focuses on initiating the change, the interdisciplinary team implements the SBAR (Situation, Background, Assessment, and Recommendation) method as a structured communication tool to facilitate seamless information transfer (El Bizri et al., 2024). In the refreezing stage which focuses on establishing the new status quo, the inspection of new handoff protocols starts, training staff and policy implementation to reinforce the new practices. The healthcare profession uses Lewin's model often to help teams transition their behaviors and procedures so it stands as an effective method for handling this concern. (El Bizri et al., 2024). The source utilized in this section is peer-reviewed, and current, and presents credible information to support Lewin’s Change Management Model.

Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution

Transformational Leadership appears to be one of the effective leadership approaches to improve patient handoffs. Healthcare individuals under transformational leadership learn change acceptance since this leadership promotes open dialogue as well as active involvement in problem resolution (Brown-Deveaux et al., 2022). Transformation leadership promotes a culture of learning an aspect which is crucial in encouraging learning, sharing ideas, and adoption of new change which in this case is standardized handoff procedures. Leaders recognize and give feedback to their staff for good performance a practice that encourages interdisciplinary teams to continue implementing best practices. Studies indicate transformational leadership functions as an efficient strategy for healthcare organizations because it creates environments that promote continuous improvement together with enhanced inter-teamwork (Brown-Deveaux et al., 2022). The source used in supporting this leadership approach is credible, and current and it has undergone peer review.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

To improve interdisciplinary collaboration, the TeamSTEPPS framework can be applied. This evidence-based approach focuses on communication where the interdisciplinary team implements structured communication methods like SBAR (Kuriyan et al., 2021). After that, the interdisciplinary team establishes leadership by encouraging shared decision-making, mutual respect and trust, active listening, and valuing diverse views from different team members. Situational monitoring is also performed to ensure all team members have real-time access to patient information (Kuriyan et al., 2021). Lastly, mutual support is undertaken to promote teamwork and accountability. TeamSTEPPS has been shown to improve team dynamics and patient outcomes, making it a valuable framework for addressing handoff challenges. The source used to support the collaboration of the interdisciplinary teams is credible since it is peer-reviewed, authored by scholars, and contains current information.

Brown-Deveaux, D., Kaplan, S., Gabbe, L., & Mansfield, L. (2022). Transformational leadership meets innovative strategy: how nurse leaders and clinical nurses redesigned bedside handover to improve nursing practice. Nurse Leader, 20(3), 290-296.

El Bizri, L., El Haddad, P., Yaghi, J., & El Khoury, A. (2024). Driving Change: OD Approach to Antimicrobial Resistance National Plan in Lebanon. Organization Development Journal, 42(4), 69-84.

Kuriyan, A., Kinkler, G., Cidav, Z., Kang-Yi, C., Eiraldi, R., Salas, E., & Wolk, C. B. (2021). Team strategies and tools to enhance performance and patient safety (TeamSTEPPS) to improve collaboration in school mental health: Protocol for a mixed methods hybrid effectiveness-implementation study. JMIR Research Protocols, 10(2), e26567.