What factors can contribute to role confusion and conflict among health care professionals?
Overview
In 3–4 pages, develop recommendations for a team charter and provide communication and collaboration strategies for a new interprofessional team that will work together on challenging cases.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies and assessment criteria:
Competency 1: Explain strategies for effective interprofessional teamwork and collaboration in health care delivery.
Explain methods to establish ground rules and set expectations for interprofessional team collaboration.
Describe best practices for interprofessional team collaboration.
Explain the benefits and limitations of different forms of communication for an interprofessional team.
Competency 3: Develop evidence-based nursing interventions to address specific problems and enable systemic change.
Describe conflict resolution strategies for interprofessional teams.
Identify ways to address issues of leadership in an interprofessional team.
Competency 4: Communicate in a manner that is scholarly, professional, and consistent with expectations of a nursing professional.
Write content clearly and logically, with correct use of grammar, punctuation, and mechanics.
Correctly format paper, citations, and references using APA style.
Context
Effective communication among members of a health care team results in a unified approach to patient care problems. As patient/family advocates, nurses are uniquely positioned to coordinate, collaborate, and communicate. Highly skilled communicators are actually great listeners. They collect and process information in an effort to fully understand issues and concerns. They gather information from a variety of sources: patients, licensed and unlicensed providers, and their own intuition. Exceptional communicators then filter and share information with team members (Apker, Propp, Zabava Ford, & Hofmeister, 2006).
In nursing, effective communication is increasingly viewed as a mark of professionalism (Propp et al., 2010). When paired with collaboration and coordination, communication becomes the vehicle for assuring positive patient outcomes. But what happens when disparate personalities come together with a common goal? How will communication and collaboration take place?
Teams that function effectively have determined how to work synergistically, communicate clearly, and address conflict. There are two types of dysfunction: emotional conflict and task conflict. In each type, the resulting outcome may be constructive or destructive (Almost, 2006). It is in our diversity that conflict may erupt. Diversity may include culture, values, language, age, thinking style, or a myriad of other attributes that make us each unique.
References
Apker, J., Propp, K. M., Zabava Ford, W. S., & Hofmeister, N. (2006). Collaboration, credibility, compassion, and coordination: Professional nurse communication skill sets in healthcare team interactions. Journal of Professional Nursing: Official Journal of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing, 22(3), 180–189.
Propp, K. M., Apker, J., Zabava Ford, W. S., Wallace, N., Serbenski, M., & Hofmeister, N. (2010). Meeting the complex needs of the health care team: Identification of nurse–team communication practices perceived to enhance patient outcomes. Qualitative Health Research, 20(1), 15–28.
Almost, J. (2006). Conflict within nursing work environments: Concept analysis. Journal of Advanced Nursing, 53(4), 444–453.
Questions to Consider
To deepen your understanding, you are encouraged to consider the questions below and discuss them with a fellow learner, a work associate, an interested friend, or a member of your professional community.
What is the most effective way to promote and support behavior change in team members?
When (if ever) is conflict within a team productive?
What factors can contribute to role confusion and conflict among health care professionals?
Suggested Resources
The following optional resources are provided to support you in completing the assessment or to provide a helpful context.
Garon, M. (2012). Speaking up, being heard: Registered nurses’ perceptions of workplace communication. Journal of Nursing Management, 20(3), 361–371.
Krimshtein, N. S., Luhrs, C. A., Puntillo, K. A., Cortez, T. B., Livote, E. E., Penrod, J. D., & Nelson, J. E. (2011). Training nurses for interdisciplinary communication with families in the intensive care unit: An intervention. Journal of Palliative Medicine, 14(12), 1325–1332.
McLaughlin, S., Pearce, R., & Trenoweth, S. (2013). Reducing conflict on wards by improving team communication. Mental Health Practice, 16(5), 29–31.
Flicek, C. L. (2012). Communication: A dynamic between nurses and physicians. MEDSURG Nursing, 21(6), 385–386.
Zwarenstein, M., Rice, K., Gotlib-Conn, L., Kenaszchuk, C., & Reeves, S. (2013). Disengaged: A qualitative study of communication and collaboration between physicians and other professions on general internal medicine wards. BMC Health Services Research, 13(1), 1–17.
Brown, J., Lewis, L., Ellis, K., Stewart, M., Freeman, T. R., & Kasperski, M. (2011). Conflict on interprofessional primary health care teams – Can it be resolved? Journal of Interprofessional Care, 25(1), 4–10.
Greer, L. L., Saygi, O., Aaldering, H., & de Dreu, C. K. W. (2012). Conflict in medical teams: Opportunity or danger? Medical Education, 46(10), 935–942.
Janss, R., Rispens, S., Segers, M., & Jehn, K. A. (2012). What is happening under the surface? Power, conflict and the performance of medical teams. Medical Education, 46(9), 838–849.
Bookstore Resources
The resou.
Levi, D. (2017). Group dynamics for teams (5th ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
Chapters 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Assessment Instructions
Preparation
Use the Capella library and the Internet to research examples of interprofessional team charters, communication strategies and conflict resolution strategies for teams, and methods and technologies used in team communication.
Requirements
You have been charged with facilitating the launch of an interprofessional team that will work together on a number of challenging cases. The team members will come from several different areas within the organization. The team is expected to have its orientation meeting in two weeks and then work together collaboratively for the next six months. Your first task is to develop recommendations for a team charter that will help the group establish ground rules and decide who will lead the team. You also need to help the team with communication and collaboration strategies.
This assessment has two distinct sections: Team Charter Recommendations and Communication and Collaboration Strategies. Provide thorough and detailed recommendations and support your recommendations using examples, references, and citations from your research.
For the Team Charter Recommendations:
Explain methods to establish ground rules and set expectations. How might differences in personality, expectations, and experience affect team efficiency?
Describe conflict resolution strategies for interprofessional teams.
Identify effective ways to address issues of team leadership. How will the team decide who will lead them? What happens if the team leader is ineffective?
For the Communication and Collaboration Strategies:
Describe best practices for effective interprofessional collaboration. What types of technology can be used to support collaboration?
Explain the benefits and limitations of different communication strategies such as e-mail, text, voice mail, and face-to-face. When is it appropriate to use each type of communication?
This assessment should be 3–4 pages in length, not including the title page and reference page. Use at least three resources to support your recommendations, and follow APA guidelines for style and format.
Additional Requirements
Include a title page and reference page.
Reference at least three current scholarly or professional resources.
Use APA format.
Use Times New Roman font, 12 point.
Double space.