NURS 8302 Discussion Strategies for Building Effective Teams

NURS 8302 Discussion Strategies for Building Effective Teams

Primary care clinics manage several chronic diseases, and diabetes is one such chronic disease requiring intense management. However, evidence suggests clinical practice gaps in diabetes care (Mukerji et al.,2019). As a family nurse practitioner and certified diabetes care specialist affiliated at a community clinic, applying a quality improvement (QI) strategy are apparent in improving such gaps in care delivery. One way of such an application is developing a QI team. Quality improvement teams are mechanism healthcare industry utilize to initiate and implement improvements within its organization (Rowland et al., 2018). This team comprises individuals from various disciplines and departments working together to identify problems, design solutions through testing, and implement a sustainable plan to accomplish the QI goals set in place (Rowland et al., 2018). Therefore, it becomes essential for a successful improvement effort to include the right people within the organization as team members suitable to meet the needs of the organization or department (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2021).

The effectiveness of the QI process often depends on the ability of the improvement team members to work well together with the healthcare system. Some of the qualities of a team member include but are not limited to the following: one respected by a broad range of staff, a team player, a good communicator and listener, a problem solver, creative, and one who is ready for change due to frustration with the current situation. (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Health and Services Administration. (n.d.)). Additionally, it is also important to include members possessing three different kinds of expertise within the organization, namely system leadership, technical expertise, and day-to-day leadership, to drive improvement successfully (Institute for Healthcare Improvement, 2021).

The role of a strong leader is crucial because such a leader should understand the implications of the changes and the consequences of the proposed change to the organizational system; therefore, the leader should be one with clinical expertise with authority in the healthcare organization. For example, the medical director of the community primary care center’s primary is the QI leader of our organization. Secondly is selecting a technical expert knowledge about the care process, providing technical support, assisting with design, measuring tools, interpreting, and displaying data such as models for improvement, the plan do-study act cycles, workflow mapping (AHRQ, 2013).

Thirdly, is selecting day-to-day leadership. According to IHI (2021), this individual team member has a vital role because they oversee data collection, ensure implementation, and understand the system’s details and the effects of making changes in the system. Additionally, this individual should have a good working relationship with the leader and front-line clinician, or nurse manager fit such description. Lastly is the project sponsor, who can be the chief operating officer in an organization who may not necessarily participate with the QI team but stay apprised with teams’ progress because of the crucial position by serving as a link to the QI team and senior management in obtaining resources and help overcome barriers on behalf of the team (AHRQ, 2013).

Finally, stakeholders in a QI team are those staff members, physicians, such as nurses, Dietitians, medical assistants who have an interest and can influence the outcome of QI implementation. Organizations such as primary care clinics or any healthcare setting embarking on QI should seek and identify stakeholders who will buy in to change projects early to develop a positive relationship, thus preventing conflict and delays of project implementation from creating sustainable change in the organization (AHRQ, 2013).

References

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality. (2013). Model 14. Creating quality improvement teams and QI plans. https://www.ahrq.gov/ncepcr/tools/pf-handbook/mod14.html

Institute for Healthcare Improvement. (n.d.). Science of improvement: Forming the team. http://www.ihi.org/resources/Pages/HowtoImprove/ScienceofImprovementFormingtheTeam.aspx

Mukerji, G., Halperin, I., Segal, P., Sutton, L., Wong, R., Caplan, L., Whitham, D., and Gilmour, J. A. (2019). Beginning a diabetes quality improvement project. Canadian Journal of Diabetes. 43(4): 234-240