Collaboration and Leadership Reflection

Leadership and interdisciplinary collaboration need to be effective to achieve the goals of patient safety and quality care (Shaha & Grace, 2022). Rising patients fall in Mercy Medical Center’s (MMC) medical-surgical unit have caused injuries and unnecessarily longer hospital stays. This problem must be addressed through nurses, physicians, and therapists teamwork to achieve good results. This reflection explores the experience of interdisciplinary collaboration, evaluates leadership performance, and describes best practice strategies to improve patient safety.

Reflection on an Interdisciplinary Collaboration Experience

When patient falls were rising at the MMC medical surgical unit, an interdisciplinary team was formed to create a prevention protocol. A comprehensive and effective plan can be developed through interdisciplinary collaboration between nurses, physicians, physical therapists and administrators (Ruebling et al., 2023). The communication between nurses and physical therapists improved the mobility programs, and bedside safety rounds improved the patient monitoring. The bed alarms also reduced fall incidents. On the contrary, physician engagement was absent, and there were gaps in prevention efforts due to a lack of communication of shifts. To improve communication and make all team members participate, the team needed improved interdisciplinary collaboration and stronger leadership enforcement.

Comparison of Effective vs. Ineffective Leadership

Leaders of MMC used transformational leadership to motivate staff, promote teamwork, and implement fall prevention strategies for nurse managers. Effective leadership is collaborative, communication-friendly and staff-engaging, while ineffective leadership leads to resistance and less progress (De Brún & McAuliffe, 2022). They made the effort to ensure that communication, education, and staff empowerment were encouraged. On the other hand, some department leaders opposed the change, leading to noncompliance with protocol, creating confusion, and impeding fall reduction efforts.

Best-Practice Leadership Strategies

Transformational leadership, along with Kotter’s Change Management Model, are useful in improving interdisciplinary collaboration and patient safety at MMC. Transformational leadership helps create a culture of safety, teamwork and innovation through inspiring and empowering staff, also fostering greater engagement. Kotter’s model includes creating urgency, building a guiding coalition, and creating a process for reinforcing change (Kang et al., 2020). These strategies integrate well into a collaborative exercise, ensure adherence to fall prevention protocols, and improve patient outcomes.

Best-Practice Interdisciplinary Collaboration Strategies

Key strategies to improve collaboration and patient safety at MMC include standardized shift handoffs and interdisciplinary huddles. Structured and standardized communication with the handoffs helps to reduce errors and maintain continuity of care during the consultation period. Shared decision-making and regular team training sessions lead to better collaboration in the form of mutual accountability and unity in patient care among all disciplines (Ruebling et al., 2023). These practices strengthen teamwork, eliminate misunderstandings, and improve patient outcomes.

Leadership Development Plan

MMC’s leaders demonstrated transformational leadership to motivate staff and to improve fall prevention efforts. However, I suggest that developing servant leadership will further help staff and assist in building teamwork. Servant leadership focuses on team needs, the value of collaboration, and staff empowerment in patient safety (Demeke et al., 2024). I will attend leadership workshops on team dynamics and obtain mentorship from nurse leaders with the experience to further strengthen this skill. Together, these will improve interdisciplinary teamwork, improve communication, and create a safer care environment.

Conclusion

For MMC to improve patient safety, effective leadership and strong interdisciplinary collaboration are required. Transformational and servant leadership, along with structured communication strategies, improves patient falls. Healthcare teams can achieve better patient outcomes with a culture of collaboration and proactive leadership. The organization should promote shared decision-making, which can help build a cohesive and effective interdisciplinary team.

References

De Brún, A., & McAuliffe, E. (2022). “When there’s collective leadership, there’s the power to make changes”: A realist evaluation of a collective leadership intervention (co-lead) in healthcare teams. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 30(2), 155–172. https://doi.org/10.1177/15480518221144895 

Demeke, G. K., Engen, M., & Markos, S. (2024). Servant leadership in the healthcare literature: A systematic review. Journal of Healthcare Leadership, 16(16), 1–14. https://doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S440160 

Capella FPX 4005 Assessment 1

Kang, S. P., Chen, Y., Svihla, V., Gallup, A., Ferris, K., & Datye, A. K. (2020). Guiding change in higher education: An emergent, iterative application of Kotter’s change model. Studies in Higher Education, 47(2), 270–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2020.1741540 

Ruebling, I., Eggenberger, T., Frost, J. S., Gazenfried, E., Green, A., Khalili, H., Ochs, J. H., Ronnebaum, J., & Stein, S. (2023). Interprofessional collaboration: A public policy healthcare transformation call for action. Journal of Interprofessional Education and Practice, 33(33), e100675. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2023.100675 

Shaha, M. Z., & Grace, P. J. (2022). Competency frameworks, nursing perspectives, and interdisciplinary collaborations for good patient care: Delineating boundaries. Nursing Philosophy, 24(1), e12402. https://doi.org/10.1111/nup.12402