Hello everyone. Welcome to my collaboration and leadership reflection video. In this reflective piece, I will address an interdisciplinary collaboration experience, including the successful aspects and challenges experienced throughout the process. I will also reflect on Clarion Court Skilled Nursing Facility scenario and the relevance of leadership strategies in establishing a functional clinical environment. For my experience, I was part of an interdisciplinary team tasked with the responsibility of sharing insights into the effectiveness of an electronic medical record that was still in the testing stages.
The team included physicians, nurses, clinical assistants, the IT team, and the nurse manager. The IT team asked us to help in identifying limitations of the proposed technology. For instance, I had the chance to contribute ideas about efficiency of the system, the ease of use, and improvement from the previous EMR. The information enabled the IT team to identify improvements, including changes to the hardware and software to enhance reliability and performance. A successful aspect of the collaborative process was the fact that we managed to identify challenges such as the ease of use and shared the findings with the IT team. We also managed to identify resources that would help the nursing team utilize the EMR to optimize care outcomes.
Given the fact that the system would influence safety and quality of patient care across the organization, it was crucial to embrace team-based values, attitudes, and behaviors fit for interdisciplinary collaboration. The process revealed the need for leaders to create an open and transparent environment (Errida & Lotfi, 2021). The effective leadership skills encourage team members to share suggestions about improvements necessary to make the new EMR functional and appropriate for the hospital’s strategic priorities. However, the busy nature of physicians and a section of the nurses made it challenging to arrange meetings where everyone would have the chance to present their ideas. Another challenge was that the senior members of the team felt that they had the authority to make most of the contributions and influence the direction of the interdisciplinary collaboration.
One takeaway from the collaborative experience is that effective leadership is a priority that facilitates proactive participation in addressing issues within the clinical environment. The leader inspires a shared vision where everyone adopts behaviors and attitudes that match calls for evidence-based and patient-centered practices (Cakiroglu et al., 2021). Another takeaway is about the need for excellent communication to encourage shared decision-making (Nilsen et al., 2020). The process improves information flow due to strong interpersonal relations and individual commitment to making contributions that help the organization move forward. During the meetings, the focus is on aligning actions with patient-centered practices meant to enhance the quality, safety, and quality of care.