Assessment Instructions

Preparation

Health care leaders often find that resolving a problem in delivering safe, high-quality health care requires the combined effort of a number of agencies, departments, and individuals.

For this assessment, identify a quality-related situation or problem relevant to your professional practice or area of interest that requires the collaborative effort of several departments and individuals to resolve. You will assume the role of team leader and draft a proposal for the organization’s executive leadership that outlines why this interprofessional team is necessary, who should take part in the collaboration, how the team will function, and how progress will be reported.

A project proposal should identify the situation or problem, identify the causes or contributing factors, present a plan of action, provide details about the plan, and provide reasons why the plan should be undertaken.

Proposal Requirements

Write a proposal for assembling an interprofessional team. As you begin drafting your proposal, consider your goal and the needs of the leaders whose decisions will be based on the information you provide.

Note: The requirements outlined below correspond to the grading criteria in the Interprofessional Collaboration scoring guide. At a minimum, be sure to address each point. In addition, you are encouraged to review the performance level descriptions for each criterion to see how your work will be assessed. You are provided an example proposal that illustrates what proficient-level work for this assessment looks like.

Proposal Format and APA Style

• Use the simplified Project Proposal Template, linked in the Resources, to draft your proposal. You may organize the content of your proposal in a format used in your organization. An abstract is not required.
• Your proposal should be 4–6 double-spaced pages in length, not including the title page and reference page.
• Apply correct APA formatting to all in-text citations and references.
• Use Times New Roman, 12-point font.

Writing

• Be concise, but thorough. Your readers need sufficient and accurate information on which to base their decisions, and do not have time to sift through information that is not pertinent.
• Express your main points, arguments, and conclusions coherently.
• Use correct grammar and mechanics.
• Be sure to support your claims, arguments, and conclusions with credible evidence from 3–5 current, scholarly or professional sources.
• Proofread your writing.

Plan Content

• Analyze the factors that have contributed to the problem. ( Hint: Examine the reasons for ineffective communication, not just the communication itself. Reasons may include staff burnout, workload, staffing shortfalls, attitudes, assumptions, and so on.)
  • Consider whether certain combinations of factors might be contributing to the problem.
• Explain why an interprofessional team is needed to address the problem and achieve expected project outcomes.
  • Determine who should be on the team. Identify the disciplines or areas team members should come from and any specific job titles prospective team members should hold.
  • Describe the knowledge and expertise each discipline has to offer in resolving the situation. In addition, consider the level of creativity and problem-solving skills that are needed.
• Assess the effectiveness of a particular leadership approach in building and maintaining interprofessional collaborative relationships. Consider how effective that approach is in:
  • Encouraging participation by all team members.
  • Engaging reluctant or resistant team members.
  • Maintaining a respectful platform for members to voice their ideas.
• Develop a strategy for communicating progress by the team to executive leadership.
  • Determine which approach to communicating with leaders will be most effective and efficient.
  • Determine whether you will have regular meetings and generate status reports.
• Develop a collaborative plan for resolving the problem.
  • Identify the ethical or political issues that are relevant factors in your proposed solution.
  • Identify the social, cultural, or economic factors that are relevant to your proposed solution.
  • Explain how you would address the ethical, political, social, cultural, or economic factors you have identified as relevant to your plan.
• Describe your role as a leader in implementing the proposed solution.
• Determine how the practitioner-scholar model might be applied in resolving the problem.
  • Consider how theory, research, and the published work in the field, in conjunction with your own experience and professional knowledge, might be used to develop strategies to analyze and resolve the problem.

Resources

Assessment Example

• Assessment 1 Example [PDF].

Required Resources

The following resource is required to complete the assessment.

• Project Proposal Template [DOCX].

Suggested Resources

The resources provided here are optional. You may use other resources of your choice to prepare for this assessment; however, you will need to ensure that they are appropriate, credible, and valid. The NHS-FP5004 – Collaboration, Communication, and Case Analysis for Health Care Master’s Learners Library Guide can help direct your research, and the Supplemental Resources and Research Resources, both linked from the left navigation menu in your courseroom, provide additional resources to help support you.

• Capella Scholar Practitioner Model | Transcript.

APA Style Tutorial Paper

You may consult the SoNHS APA Style Tutorial Paper [PDF], which explains proper use of APA formatting, including margins and spacing, and contains examples of in-text citations and references. This will help you use APA format consistently throughout your assessments.

Health Care Leadership and Interprofessional Communication

• Embree, J. L., Wagnes, L., Hendricks, S., LaMothe, J., Halstead, J., & Wright, L. (2018). Empowering nurses to lead interprofessional collaborative practice environments through a nurse leadership institute. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 49(2), 61–71.
• Foronda, C., MacWilliams, B., & McArthur, E. (2016). Interprofessional communication in healthcare: An integrative review. Nurse Education in Practice, 19, 36–40.

Leadership Approaches

• Cote, R. (2017). Vision of effective leadership. Journal of Leadership, Accountability and Ethics, 14(4), 52–63.

These resources examine emotional intelligence in health care leaders.

• Fernandez, C. S. P., Peterson, H. B., Holmstrom., S. W., & Connolly, A. (2012). Developing emotional intelligence for healthcare leaders. Retrieved from http://www.intechopen.com/books/emotional-intellig…
• Nightingale, S., Slade, P., Sheen, K., & Spiby, H. (2018). Emotional intelligence and caring in health care professionals. International Journal of Nursing Studies, 80, 106–117. Retrieved from http://eprints.nottingham.ac.uk/48993/

Building Collaborative Relationships

These resources examine how effective multidisciplinary teams function and improve health care delivery.

• Burgess, C., & Curry, M. P. (2014). Transforming the health care environment collaborative. AORN Journal, 99(4), 529–539.
• Gausvik, C., Lautar, A., Miller, L., Pallerla, H., & Schlaudecker, J. (2015). Structured nursing communication on interdisciplinary acute care teams improves perceptions of safety, efficiency, understanding of care plan and teamwork as well as job satisfaction. Journal of Multidisciplinary Healthcare, 8, 33–37.
• McComb, S., & Hebdon, M. (2013). Enhancing patient outcomes in healthcare systems through multidisciplinary teamwork. Clinical Journal of Oncology Nursing, 17(6), 669–672.
• Nancarrow, S. A., Booth, A., Ariss, S., Smith, T., Enderby, P., & Roots, A. (2013). Ten principles of good interdisciplinary team work. Human Resources for Health, 11(1), 1–12.
• Nancarrow, S. A., Smith, T., Ariss, S., & Enderby, P. M. (2015). Qualitative evaluation of the implementation of the interdisciplinary management tool: A reflective tool to enhance interdisciplinary teamwork using structured, facilitated action research for implementation. Health & Social Care in the Community, 23(4), 437–448.

Collaborating Quality and Safety Improvement Project Examples

• Davis, M. V., Mahanna, E., Joly, B., Zelek, M., Riley, W., Verma, P., & Fisher, J. S. (2014). Creating quality improvement culture in public health agencies. American Journal of Public Health, 104(1), E98–E104.
• Gustavsson, S. M. K. (2014). Improvements in neonatal care; using experience-based co-design. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 27(5), 427–438.

Leadership and Quality Improvement

• Kaminski, G. M., Britto, M. T., Schoettker, P. J., Farber, S. L., Muething, S., & Kotagal, U. R. (2013). Republished: Developing capable quality improvement leaders. Postgraduate Medical Journal, 89(1048), 78–86.

The Leader as a Scholar

• Mannix, J., Wilkes, L., & Jackson, D. (2013). Marking out the clinical expert/clinical leader/clinical scholar: Perspectives from nurses in the clinical arena. BMC Nursing, 12(12), 1–8.
• Limoges, J., Acorn, S., & Osborne, M. (2015). The scholarship of application: Recognizing and promoting nurses’ contribution to knowledge development. The Journal of Continuing Education in Nursing, 46(2), 77–82.

Additional Resources for Further Exploration

The textbook references below provide additional background. If you choose to engage with these resources, you are encouraged to find them via your preferred retailer or your local library.

• Buchbinder, S. B., Shanks, N. H., & Buchbinder, D. (2014). Cases in health care management. Burlington, MA: Jones & Bartlett Learning.
  • This textbook contains some excellent case study scenarios. Interesting questions and useful resources are also included at the end of each case.
• Green, J. L. (2015). Graduate savvy: Navigating the world of online higher education (3rd ed.). Warrenton, VA: Glocal Press. This textbook offers useful information to help you succeed as a graduate-level learner in an online environment.