Question

Nurse Olivia Witte is in charge of an interdisciplinary team at Sunrise Hospital. The nurses at Sunrise have identified a need to develop a critical pathway for ventilator-dependent patients who are about to be discharged to home with home health care. Nurse Witte knows that these patients have multiple complex care needs. It is urgent that information flow be specific and detailed to make “seamless” the care transfer between the hospital and home care, wherever this may be. First, Nurse Witte had to manage a few physicians who flatly stated that they would not follow a “cookbook” concocted by nurses. Then the dietary representative presented the team with dietary's protocols and suggested that nurses integrate these because nurses were in charge of the pathway maintenance. Next, Nurse Witte discovered why the local home health care representative was not returning phone calls and could not come to team meetings for quite a while: the group was planning a move in 1 month and was just notified of that The Joint Commission (TJC) would be visiting in 3 months.

1. What is the problem?

2. Whose problem is it?

3. What should Nurse Witte do?

4. What mode of communication should Nurse Witte use?

5. How can Nurse Witte structure a clear message?

6. To whom should Nurse Witte communicate first? Who else needs to be involved in the communication flow?

7. What leadership and management strategies should Nurse Witte use?

Answer 1