Assessment 1: Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Video
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Assessment 1: Collaboration and Leadership Reflection Video (Assessment 1)
Introduction
Healthcare providers have the role of providing timely, effective, and safe care that holistically addresses the patients’ various needs to enable them to achieve better health outcomes and improve their quality of life. One of the ways to ensure holistic care is through interprofessional collaboration, where different healthcare professionals come together and contribute toward decision-making on how to best care for the patient (Wei et al., 2020). Given the different professionals brought together in the interdisciplinary team, there is a need for implementing strategies that will ensure such teams work for a common goal and eradicate any barriers or challenges within these teams, which, when left unaddressed, can significantly impact the effectiveness of the team (Wei et al., 2020). By reflecting on the interdisciplinary experience, members of interdisciplinary teams can identify the successes and challenges during their collaboration and build on this to enhance the effectiveness of future interprofessional collaboration for better patient care. This paper is a reflection of the collaborative interprofessional project I worked on and will discuss various aspects related to collaboration, as well as discuss best practice strategies that can help interdisciplinary collaboration achieve its goal.
Reflection on the Interdisciplinary Collaboration Experience
I have been a member of several interdisciplinary teams formed to provide holistic care, especially to patients with diverse and complex healthcare needs. One of the experiences I, however, chose to reflect on was in the management of patients with complications of diabetes as a result of poor medication adherence and inadequate follow-up. Various key aspects and strategies enabled the team to progress in achieving its goals; for instance, there was mutual respect for each member of the interdisciplinary team, where each opinion counted, and everyone was involved in the decision-making process. This made everyone feel in place and valued within the team, leading to commitment.
Setting the team’s goal and making it straightforward for every team member also pushed everyone to commit to achieving the united goal. However, other aspects of the collaboration could have been improved to make the team even more effective. One of the areas was role clarity, where it could have been better if every team member was assigned their roles based on competence, and each of them took on these roles as needed to prevent role overlap. Additionally, the communication strategies could also be improved by ensuring open communication to all members regarding the progress of the team in a language that every member understands. Such open communication makes the purpose of the organization clear and is a way of ensuring the active engagement of all members of the team in the various team activities.
Impact of Poor Collaboration
Poor collaboration makes such teams ineffective in achieving the set goals, resulting in wastage of resources, poor health outcomes for patients, and low patient satisfaction levels. There are various ways in which the interdisciplinary team I was part of did not collaborate effectively, thereby impacting the overall performance and creating room for improvement for better outcomes. One area was role clarity, where duties and roles were not assigned clearly based on an individual’s qualifications (Wei et al., 2022). This resulted in individuals taking up roles they were not adequately qualified to take, resulting in underperformance. Additionally, the collaboration did not address the communication issue, as there was no open communication to the team members. Some of the members had language barriers, and there were no effective communication strategies to address their concerns, so they could not perform to their potential to achieve the team’s goals (Wei et al., 2022).
Poor interdisciplinary collaboration is associated with negative implications for the human and financial resources and the organization as a whole. Such poor collaboration can result in disagreements within the teams, leading to increased staff turnover, resulting in workforce shortage (Wei et al., 2022). Additionally, poor collaboration results in suboptimal allocation of resources, which further compromises the efficiency and effectiveness of these interprofessional teams. Such poor collaboration also impacts the overall patient health outcomes, resulting in poor health outcomes and reduced patient satisfaction. Such poor satisfaction and increased staff turnover significantly impact the organization as a whole, as it damages its reputation, subsequently affecting its operations (Wei et al., 2022).
Best-Practice Leadership Strategies to Improve an Interdisciplinary Team’s Ability
Leadership plays a critical role in the success of any interdisciplinary team. One of the best practice leadership strategies that can be implemented includes positive leadership and management attributes, creating a favorable and supportive environment where all the team members feel motivated and valued. This is crucial as it improves their performance and commitment to achieving the team’s goals (Rosen et al., 2018). The other best practice leadership strategy is through establishing effective communication strategies such as clear channels for communication sharing, addressing any barriers, such as linguistic barriers, that may hinder communication among the team members, and promoting active listening and respectful dialogue among the team members (Rosen et al., 2018). Such open communication is key as it ensures that every team member is adequately informed of the various activities taking place.
The leader should also employ a servant leadership style so as to be able to listen to the needs of the team members and effectively address their concerns to improve their performance. The other strategy is recognizing and rewarding team achievement, and investing in ongoing training and skill development for team members, as this helps improve their competency towards achieving the team’s goals (Rosen et al., 2018). The leader should also establish clear team goals that align with the organization’s vision and have good delegation skills to assign duties and responsibilities based on individual skills and competency levels. This will help ensure their cooperation and improve their performance in their assigned roles (Rosen et al., 2018).
Best-Practice Interdisciplinary Collaboration Strategies
Employing best-practice interdisciplinary collaboration strategies is crucial in achieving the team’s goals and vision. One of such strategies is mutual respect among the team members. Given the diversity of the members in interdisciplinary teams, mutual respect, where each member’s opinion and contributions are respected and valued, is crucial in promoting their commitment to achieving the team’s goal (Cleary et al., 2019). Such mutual respect promotes shared decision-making, creating room for recommendations and innovations to achieve the team’s goals and stick together. The other strategy is creating a supportive and favorable environment for all the members. This involves ensuring the availability of the necessary resources to carry out various activities of the team and ensuring fair remuneration and rewards for the team members as these will motivate them, promoting their commitment towards achieving the team’s goals (Cleary et al., 2019).
Conclusion
Interprofessional collaboration is crucial in providing holistic and patient-centered care for better outcomes. Reflection on past interprofessional collaboration experiences helps understand areas of weakness that can be improved to improve future collaborations. Various strategies such as ensuring mutual respect for team members, shared decision-making within the team, open communication, role clarity, a favorable and supportive working environment, and ensuring availability of required resources, among others, are all crucial in achieving the team’s goals and ensuring that the team sticks and works together towards the set common goal and vision.
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References
Cleary, M., Foong, A., Kornhaber, R., McLean, L., & Visentin, D. C. (2019). Interprofessional collaborations for improved health care. Issues in mental health nursing, 40(12), 1045–1048. https://doi.org/10.1080/01612840.2019.1655367
Rosen, M. A., DiazGranados, D., Dietz, A. S., Benishek, L. E., Thompson, D., Pronovost, P. J., & Weaver, S. J. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist, 73(4), 433. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/amp0000298
Wei, H., Corbett, R. W., Ray, J., & Wei, T. L. (2020). A culture of caring: the essence of healthcare interprofessional collaboration. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 34(3), 324–331. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2019.1641476
Wei, H., Horns, P., Sears, S. F., Huang, K., Smith, C. M., & Wei, T. L. (2022). A systematic meta-review of systematic reviews about interprofessional collaboration: facilitators, barriers, and outcomes. Journal of Interprofessional Care, 36(5), 735–749. https://doi.org/10.1080/13561820.2021.1973975
