Interdisciplinary Plan Proposal The nurses at Hospice feel overwhelmed and burnt out due to the inefficient communication between the team of physicians and community liaisons. Alicia Holman, the Director of Nursing, will need to organize a meeting for each of the teams to find a solution in which the nurses, physicians, and community liaisons can work together efficiently to provide the best end of life care for their patients. Objective To create a timetable for physicians to respond to nurses within a certain amount of time and have nurses call after a certain amount of time if follow-up is required, therefore reducing any extra “waiting” time for patients and nurses. To have the intake department take over scheduling nurses for admissions 1 day after community liaisons have spoken to new potential patients, therefore giving nurses adequate preparation time to see those patients. Questions and Predictions 1. How much time is sufficient to wait for physicians to answer messages from nurses? a. 5 to 10 minutes should be sufficient time. However, if physicians are busy with other patients, to at least respond with an estimated time the nurses will have to wait. 2. How will the intake department determine which nurse will be scheduled appointments for admissions? a. Nurses will be assigned appointments based off their location for the day. If there is a potential client in San Francisco, a nurse who is already working in San Francisco or the surrounding area will be the nurse of choice. 3. What will be the limit of numbers of admissions in a day for a nurse? a. If a nurse is working a full 8 hour shift, there should be a maximum of 2 new patients per day. Each admission should ideally require 2 hours of face to face time. Charting each admission should ideally take 1.5 hours per patient. If nurses are assigned patients within the same area, theoretically, each nurse should be able to admit 2 patients in a day. 4. What if there are no available nurses to admit a patient? a. Cross-training case managers to admit patients. This will allow the case managers to admit patients who will ultimately be their patient. Change Theories and Leadership Strategies Kurt Lewin’s theory of change states, “an action research approach involves analyzing the current situation of an organization, identifying the range of possible change solutions and choosing the one that is most appropriate” (Batras, Duff, and Smith 2016). Hospice is an organization made up of different healthcare professionals who are required to work together in order to serve patients and their families. In order to admit a patient into hospice, a registered nurse is required to evaluate and assess a patient’s health and goals of care. Unfortunately, the nurses feel like there is inefficient communication between the community liaisons and physicians in order to do their job effectively and efficiently. This situation is what needs to be changed. The nurses needed to be heard by a leader who can help brainstorm a solution. “Leaders are not just the individuals in positions of leadership. Rather, they are the ''go to" individuals who can be counted on, who are approachable, and who have developed and used their leadership strategies effectively” (Menaker 2016). Alicia is that leader.