Use the context of the organization from your interview to develop a viable plan for an interdisciplinary team to address the issue you identified (ATTACHED INTERVIEW). Define a specific organizationa

Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Alyssa LaPierre

School of Nursing and Health Sciences, Capella University

NURS-FPX4005: Nursing Leadership: Focusing on People, Processes, and Organizations

John DeOca

April, 2025

Interview Summary

The Comanche County Memorial Hospital medical-surgical unit presents multiple essential organizational challenges to Ashley Larmore, a registered nurse who has worked there for five years. This medical facility maintains 40 beds as its main patient area to support complex medical cases that need well-coordinated discharge services. Mrs. Larmore pointed out that medical staff members’ inconsistent communication methods generate extended hospital stays and repeat admissions, primarily affecting patients diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure and COPD.

The hospital conducted regular weekly discharge planning meetings to resolve these matters. The medical staff and case management team participated in these meetings irregularly, and according to Mrs. Larmore, the format needed better organization. Nurses and case managers collaborated often, but other medical staff members maintained separate practices, leading to care fragmentation. The healthcare organization places high value on individual performance. Yet Mrs. Larmore told us about specific cases to produce superior treatment results.

Issue Identification

The main problem emerges from weak interdisciplinary communication, leading to substandard discharge planning, which results in longer patient stays and increased readmission rates within thirty days. Elderly patients with numerous chronic illnesses face this problem because they need specialized care. These are the main reasons why an evidence-based approach should be implemented. Modern discharge planning success demands active involvement from nursing staff, medical doctors, and staff members from social work, pharmacy services, and rehabilitation specialists. Medical studies prove that formal collaborative practices among disciplines lower hospital readmission rates. This is because the care process includes better patient training and follow-up services. Team members who participate in interdisciplinary collaboration will feel greater accountability. Thus lowering the chances of essential tasks being missed during care transitions.

Change Theories for Interdisciplinary Solutions

Kotter's eight-step model is a complete framework to improve interdisciplinary discharge planning. The model starts with urgency creation through sharing admission rate data and their monetary influence. Action-based transformation occurs by concurrently eliminating obstacles to engagement, followed by quick achievements, and ends with adopting modern approaches as standard practice. Kotter's model shows significant value because it handles challenges related to change resistance and coordination issues currently affecting the situation. Widespread healthcare facilities applying this approach confirm its validity due to its implementation success with similar operational issues. (Engmann et al. 2024).

Leadership Strategies for Interdisciplinary Solutions

Implementing transformational leadership is a productive method to accomplish operational and cultural alterations. Through this style, leaders target them to motivate fellow team members to achieve common organizational goals rather than directing people to carry out their assignments. Transformational leaders in discharge planning create collaborative examples and explain teamwork advantages when they actively request input from staff members of each discipline. (Hofmann, 2023). This method deals with the clinical practice needs of each discipline to acknowledge collaborative work. Studies have proven that transformational leadership optimizes teamwork between professional teams within healthcare. This makes it an excellent approach to address communication problems found in the interview.

Collaboration Approaches for Interdisciplinary Teams

Structured Interdisciplinary Rounds (SIR) present organizations with a working approach to establishing better team collaboration. The daily standpoint sessions enable essential team members to meet briefly to discuss discharge barriers and create action plans. Standard agenda selection for high-risk patients combined with time restrictions and defined documentation of duties comprise essential components (Hofmann, 2023).

Major studies indicate that SIR reduces both patient hospital stays and readmissions while providing satisfaction benefits to medical teams. The adoption of SIR as a solution at Comanche County Memorial Hospital’s medical-surgical unit aims to resolve unmanaged meetings and inconsistent staff contributions. Research has established that SIR methods are effective because they function similarly in healthcare facilities, so the approach is a research-based answer to the identified problems.

Conclusion

The interview findings revealed the potential for better patient results that could be achieved by improving cross-team coordination during discharge planning. Combining Kotter's Change Model, transformational leadership principles, and Structured Interdisciplinary Rounds enables Comanche County Memorial Hospital to solve its present-day difficulties systematically. The research-based strategies create a pathway that lowers readmission rates, improves patient care outcomes, and advances teamwork between medical staff. Leadership and staff dedication throughout different disciplines will guarantee successful deployment while reaching commendable advantages for patients and the organization.

References

Hofmann, D. C. (2023). Charismatic leadership. In Encyclopedia of Business and Professional Ethics (pp. 326-329). Cham: Springer International Publishing.

Engmann, A., Eluerkeh, E., & Ngwakwe, C. (2024). Leading Change by Design-Integrating Design thinking with Kotter’s 8 Step Process. HOLISTICA Journal of Business and Public Administration, 15(2), 127-141.