Answer for NURS FPX 4010 Assessment 2 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Answer for NURS FPX 4010 Assessment 2 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Answer for NURS FPX 4010 Assessment 2 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Two weeks ago, I interviewed a female staff nurse working in the medical-surgical unit of a general hospital.  The nurse is a clinical nurse leader (CNL) who engages in direct patient care in the unit and provides nursing leadership. The CNL’s primary duties include care coordination, team leadership, facilitating transitions of care, outcomes measurement, interprofessional communication, implementation of best intervention based on evidence, risk assessment, and quality improvement. The purpose of this assignment is to summarize the information obtained from the interview and identify an issue that would benefit from an interdisciplinary approach.

Interview Summary

The CNL highlighted various patient care issues encountered in the medical-surgical unit. These include patient safety issues like diagnostic errors, medication errors, adverse drug reactions (ADRs), discharge errors, antibiotic resistance, hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), and falls especially among geriatrics. The CNL mentioned that diagnostic errors led to delays in patient recovery and treatment as well as, adverse outcomes, patient suffering, and mortalities. Besides, the CNL reported that most medication errors stemmed from human errors leading to patients receiving the wrong drugs and dosage. The CNL attributed the ADRs to drug-to-drug interactions that occur in patients on multiple medications. Polypharmacy is a major problem, especially in patients with comorbid medical conditions and some find themselves taking 5-10 medications at a go. Moreover, the CNL talked about discharge errors whereby patients are not provided with adequate or appropriate discharge instructions leading to increased readmission rates in the unit. Concerning antibiotic resistance, the CNL states that there has been an emergence of new bacteria strains that are resistant to antibiotics. The problem stems from antibiotics overuse and misuse, poor infection control, and ineffective prevention strategies.

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The CNL mentioned that the hospital’s management team has implemented various measures to curb the above issues. This includes providing regular staff training on quality improvement and patient safety. The hospital has also developed policies to address medication and discharge errors as well as infection prevention measures to control HAIs and antibiotic resistance.  The actions taken by the management have partially been effective in addressing the identified issues but there needs more evidence-based interventions to further reduce the prevalence of these issues and their effect on patients. The CNL mentioned that she had previously participated in various interprofessional team collaborations meant to improve health outcomes in specific patient populations.  She had a positive experience with the interprofessional teams but stated that they would have been much better if effective collaborative measures were implemented.

Issue Identification

Adverse drug reactions secondary to polypharmacy-related drug interactions can benefit from an evidence-based interdisciplinary approach. The patients most affected by ADRs secondary to polypharmacy are geriatrics above 65 years especially those with multiple chronic illnesses. The CNL mentioned that polypharmacy hinders medication adherence among patients and is associated with risk of falls, poor nutritional status, and cognitive impairment, which reduced patients’ quality of life (Osanlou et al., 2022). Polypharmacy often occurs when different specialists prescribe a drug for the condition they are managing without reviewing a patient’s medication history (Osanlou et al., 2022). Thus, an interdisciplinary approach would help address the issue by having the different healthcare professionals work together in patient management and developing patients’ treatment plans.

Change Theories and Leadership Strategies

Rogers’ five-step Innovation Diffusion Theory can be employed in developing an interdisciplinary solution to address the issue of ADRs secondary to polypharmacy. The theory elucidates how a person progresses from having knowledge of an innovation to confirming the decision to implement or reject the idea (Udod & Wagner, 2018). The theory’s five stages are Knowledge, Persuasion, Decision, Implementation, and Confirmation. The theory stresses the significance of engaging key persons interested in