Improved Collaboration Between Nurses and Other Disciplines of the Care - Research Paper Example

Nursing Vision: Improved Collaboration between Nurses and Other Disciplines of the Care Team al Affiliation: Introduction Collaborative working relationships in healthcare delivery have become among the leading quests for nursing professionals. This follows the realization that nurses, indeed, form the majority of healthcare staff in most medical institutions, and that their collaborative efforts with other staff members lead to significantly better outcomes for patients (Scott, 2011; Rose, 2011). Equality at the workplace implies equal treatment of all employees. For equal treatment to prevail, it is necessary that all cadres of professionals are equally and adequately represented within the management. For many years, nurses have not enjoyed optimal collaborative relationships with other professionals in medical institutions. But for several years all cadres of staff in medical facilities have shown a renewed zeal to be accorded the recognition and respect they deserve (Scott, 2011). In recognition of this desire, governmental and non-governmental health organizations have embarked on a mission to integrate collaborative working relationships in their environments. But despite the efforts, the intention to achieve work-place collaboration in medical care has remained a dream – a vision whose attainment has not yet been fully realized (Muller-Juge et al, 2014). In this paper, I have emphasized the need for all cadres of medical staff to work in collaboration with each other and have a shared and equal representation in leadership through a transformational leadership that encourages collaboration among staffs in healthcare delivery. Through a review of literature, I have identified evidence of improved healthcare standards in medical facilities owing to endeavors by staff to work collaboratively. In order to achieve this type of collaboration among different categories of employees, the management needs to employ a transformational leadership style. According to Frandsen (2014), transformational leadership is a blend between democratic and servant leadership, exploring the needs of the staff members and giving them room to air their views and grievances. Through this type of leadership, communication channels are enhanced to reach all levels of employees. A nurse leader who adopts transformational leadership needs to constantly interact with team members. Therefore, the leader will adopt the “leadership by walking around” leadership style. This style of leadership encourages interaction among different levels of employees through creation of maximum interaction at the work place (p. 8). Factors A scan through literature identified a few most pertinent factors that have improved or failed collaborative working relationships between nurses and other staff in medical/ health facilities. By carefully considering each of these factors, interdisciplinary collaboration will be effectively improved. The institution’s leadership should be able to encourage effective communication among all classes of staff. More so, leaders should be realistic of their positions towards the following four major factors. Deciding Issues in Which Medical/ Health Workers Will Collaborate Despite the quest for collaboration among nurses and other medical workers, practice shows that matters in which collaborations can be effective are limited. Apparently, some issues are only suited for specific disciplines within an institution, which effectively overrides the need to consult/ work together on particular matters. Getting all staff members from across the disciplines to acknowledge this notion can be difficult, especially considering that employees in lower cadres believe they are ignored or despised by their colleagues in higher cadres (Rose, 2011). However, effective communication of this fact will be a major step to allow members of other disciplines to reflect upon the need to exclude their views on certain matters. This way, they are able to assess their knowledge against the indicated event/ occurrence, and make an informed decision at a convenient time. For instance, physicians will be the primary deciders of what type of operation to be carried out on a patient, a responsibility that is exclusively bestowed upon them. Despite their accumulated experience and exposure, persons in other disciplines cannot be entrusted to make such a decision. Equally, members of other disciplines have their own exclusive decisions to make, some which exclude physicians and all other disciplines. Enactment of Constructive Conflict Resolution Mechanisms A transformational leader must enhance conflict resolution mechanisms in the institution. Through taking time to explore working relationships in the workplace, the leader will create a culture of fast resolution of conflict. As much as more endeavors are made for staffs to collaborate more in their service delivery, it is inevitable that members of different groups will have dissenting opinions, which could be a major source of conflict in an institution. The result is that care provision worsens, leaving patients with reduced chances of safe and fast recovery (Hellquist, Bradley, Grambart, Kapustin & Loch, 2012). In situations where members of different cadres/ disciplines pick a conflict, the resolution team should focus on delivering a verdict that creates a win-win situation, as opposed to one that appears to favor a certain group over the other. This means that staffs retain respect for each other, and they feel equally represented despite belonging to hierarchically distinct groups. Recognition and Management of Diversity Members of different professions tend to have unique cultures. These cultural distinctions are partly driven by gender representations in the work place. Certain professions have skewed gender representations. For instance, nursing has been dominated by females, who are known to be more compassionate and relationship oriented (Hellquist et al, 2012). This has earned nurses a unique role in the efforts for collaboration, mainly because of this favorable feature which, despite attempts to avoid gender-based stereotyping in professions, has stood out in many research results. On the other hand, physicians are known to be more task-oriented (Scott, 2011; Hellquist et al, 2012). Creating collaboration between nurses and physicians requires acknowledgment and respect for these differences. A transformational leader bears this aspect in mind and encourages collaboration respect for diversity in order to secure collaboration in the work place. Balancing Autonomy and Harmony in the Collaborative Mission Understanding the scope of collaboration is a major step in successfully bringing in other members to support institutional decisions and targets. Staffs from different groups have to identify certain actions that could easily pass for collaboration, but which in actual sense are not. Autonomy gives members of distinct groups the power to independently make decisions that will be discussed with others to create a collaborative relationship. However, sometimes the particular group that makes up an idea ends up requiring other groups to cooperate instead of collaborate in effecting the proposition (Rose, 2011). This is not the scope of collaboration at the work place. The real aim is to bring all members on board to work towards identified aims, by playing supportive/ supplementary roles. A transformational leader should be able to single out such instances of misguided collaboration and advise the team accordingly. Evidence Evidence from nursing literature generally supports endeavors for collaborative working between nurses and other healthcare professionals. Among the highlighted benefits are improved patient outcomes and greater satisfaction with decision making among staffs, which makes partnering easier. For instance, in a review of evidence for interdisciplinary collaborations between nurses and doctors, Martin, Ummenhofer, Manser and Spirig (2010) examined fourteen previously compiled research articles for success of interdisciplinary collaborations. Thirteen out of the fourteen studies analyzed had various aspects of success that were statistically significant, implying collaboration between nurses and doctors resulted in more successful outcomes for patients. In another research, Muller-Juge et al. (2014) sought to establish behaviors that contributed to quality of teamwork among nurses and resident physicians. The researchers found that autonomy of members of both groups contributed to quality teamwork. Wong et al. (2011) investigated barriers to effective planning of patient discharge from medical institutions after inpatient admissions. In their study, effective communication and coordination among members of different professions contributed most to quality of hospital discharge. Rose (2011) pointed out autonomy among nurses as the major contributor to interprofessional collaboration, resulting in greater satisfaction and improved patient outcomes due to achievement of autonomy by nurses in evaluated institutions. In their study, Pfaff, Baxter, Jack and Ploeg (2014) found that among newly graduated nurses, confidence is boosted by supportive relationships by members of all professions, effective communication and opportunities to collaborate with other staffs. Clearly, these five studies underline the need for interdisciplinary collaboration in healthcare delivery. Conclusion Improved collaboration between nurses and other staffs in medical/ health units has high association with better patient outcomes, since the improved harmonious relationships encourage unity of purpose and focus on service delivery. In this respect, it is necessary that medical/ health institutions encourage collaborative working amongst their staffs for improved productivity. To attain this goal, research suggests that relevant managements consider several factors, including balancing autonomy and harmony across departments, enacting constructive conflict resolution mechanisms, agreeing in advance on issues that need collaborative approach, and recognizing and respecting diversity of care providers in relation to gender, culture and other important aspects of their professions. Overall, collaborative working in medical facilities is highly reliant on efficient and effective communication, as all four factors discussed are basically founded on strategic communication approaches. A transformative leadership that encourages constant interaction between leaders and other team players has high prospects of attaining the vision of a collaborative relationship at the workplace. References Frandsen, B. (2014). Nursing leadership: Management and leadership styles. New York: American Association of Nurse Assessment Coordination. Hellquist, K., Bradley, R., Grambart, S., Kapustin, J. & Loch, J. (2012). Collaborative practice benefits patients: An examination of interprofessional approaches to diabetes care. Health and Interprofessional Practice. 1(2): eP1017. Martin, J. S., Ummenhofer, W., Manser, T. & Spirig, R. (2010). Interprofessional collaboration among nurses and physicians: Making a difference in patient outcome. The European Journal of Medical Sciences. 2010: w13062. Muller-Juge, V., Cullati, S., Blondon, K. S., Hudelson, P., Maitre, F., Vu, N. V., …& Nendaz, M. R. (April 2014). Interprofessional collaboration between residents and nurses in general internal medicine: A qualitative study on behaviors enhancing teamwork quality. 9(4): 1-8. Pfaff, K. A., Baxter, P. E., Jack, S. M. & Ploeg, J. (2014). Exploring new graduate nurse confidence in interprofessional collaboration: A mixed methods study. International Journal of Nursing Studies. 51(8): 1142-1152. Rose, L. (2011). Interprofessional collaboration in the ICU: How to define? British Association of Critical Care Nurses. 16(1): 5-10. Scott, E.S. (2011). Educational preparation to strengthen nursing leadership. North Carolina Medical Journal. 72(4): 296-299. Wong, E., Yam, C., Cheung, A., Leung, M., Chan, F., Wong, F. & Yeoh, E. (2011). Barriers to effective discharge planning: A qualitative study investigating the perspectives of frontline healthcare professionals. Health Services Research. 11 (242): 1-10. Read More