In this interview, I talked with Mrs. Andy, an advanced practice registered nurse in one of the largest hospitals in my state. Mrs. Andy agreed to have the interview through videoconferencing through Google Meet. She works as a nurse manager in the surgical inpatient unit, which has a capacity of forty inpatient beds. Mrs. Andy has been working for the past six years as a certified nurse practitioner in the same organization and was promoted two years ago to work as a nurse manager in charge of seven other nurses in the same unit. She has administrative as well as clinical roles and usually balances these roles daily.
The purpose of this interview was to explore how she works collaboratively to reduce readmission rates in the surgical unit. Obamacare introduced the Hospital Readmissions Reduction Program (HRRP) to incentivize reimbursements to prevent readmissions and improve quality (U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, 2021). As an administrative nurse, Mrs. Andy has encountered various issues surrounding patient care quality and readmission reduction.
During interdisciplinary intra-organizational meetings, she has discussed readmission prevention and regular reports about the same. Her strategies to reduce readmission include incorporating technology, preventing medical and medication errors, patient education, and interdisciplinary collaboration. Her organization has been rigorous on matters of unplanned readmission and thus, the need for multimodal approaches to prevent unplanned readmission.
Issue Identification
Improving patient care quality through readmission reduction was an outstanding issue in the interview. The interviewee identified surgical site infection as the major cause of readmission in her unit. Infections are a major patient safety concern in nursing and healthcare quality. In Mrs. Andy’s case, surgical site infections need to be prevented from reducing the cost of care, mortality, and morbidity (Borchardt & Tzizik, 2018). It requires an interdisciplinary approach that would improve teamwork to prevent these infections and reduce new incidences of infection in the surgical unit.
Change Theories That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution
ADKAR change model by Jeff Hiatt is an appropriate model that would lead to interdisciplinary action for this issue. This model is an acronym that stands for five basic steps: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement (Kachian et al., 2018). This theory would help create an interdisciplinary solution by involving teamwork and awareness. According to Balluck et al. (2020), this model for change management requires constant ongoing collaboration and communication that would improve the interdisciplinary approach.
This theory is relevant to the issue at Mrs. Andy’s unit because various stakeholders are involved. My sources by Balluck et al. (2020) and Kachian et al. (2018) are peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles published within the last five years. Therefore, it is a credible source. The application of the ADKAR model in Balluck et al. (2020)’s study relates to the need for change in infection control as both involve change management for infection prevention.
Leadership Strategies That Could Lead to an Interdisciplinary Solution
Enhancing an interdisciplinary solution to this issue will require a transformational leadership strategy. From the transformational leadership style in nursing, transformational strategy deviation from normal protocols to effect change require the leader to act as a role model and inspire other team members for the impending change. As a leader, I would empower my change team through awareness and expressing the need for change to ensure participation according to the ADKAR model for change.
This strategy would lead to an interdisciplinary approach because, as a leader, I will be required to collaborate with all stakeholders during the planning and intervention phases of change. Therefore, understanding their roles and their capabilities and readiness to effect change will be evaluated in the interdisciplinary team. My source by Hart et al. (2020) is from a scholarly peer-reviewed journal (SAGE journals). The information is relevant o my field of practice, and the authors are a practitioner in healthcare.
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