Applying Leadership Theory to Interprofessional Healthcare Teams

NURS-FPX4010: Leading People, Processes, and Organizations

Collaboration across healthcare disciplines acts as a catalyst for reducing diagnostic errors and strengthening continuity of care. Interprofessional teams that prioritise open communication channels mitigate risks associated with hand-off transitions, fragmented documentation, and complex care plans. Effective leadership in these settings requires active cultivation of mutual respect, shared accountability, and clearly defined team roles among physicians, nurses, and allied health professionals. When leaders model collaborative behaviours, frontline staff are more likely to report safety concerns and near misses without fear of reprisal. Promoting a culture of collective accountability ensures that organisational standards for quality and safety are consistently upheld across diverse clinical units. Rosen et al. (2018) emphasise that team-based care is central to high-reliability organisations because it leverages the expertise of each team member to identify and prevent safety lapses before harm occurs.

Assessment 1: Collaboration and Leadership Plan

Course Overview

NURS-FPX4010: Leading People, Processes, and Organizations integrates leadership theory with practical application in interprofessional healthcare environments. The course extends beyond individual clinical competence and focuses on team dynamics, organisational systems, and quality improvement strategies.

Assessment 1 serves as a developmental blueprint for your growth as a clinical leader who can initiate, coordinate, and sustain collaborative change. Students are expected to demonstrate critical analysis, structured academic writing, and evidence-based reasoning consistent with upper-level undergraduate standards in  higher education contexts.

Task Summary

You are required to develop a formal Collaboration and Leadership Plan of 1,050 to 1,250 words. The objective is to identify a specific patient safety or quality improvement issue within a healthcare setting and outline a structured plan to address it through interprofessional collaboration.

Your plan must:

• Clearly define the patient safety or quality issue.

• Explain why collaboration across disciplines is necessary rather than relying on single-profession intervention.

• Identify and justify your leadership approach.

• Analyse team roles and responsibilities.

• Present evidence-based strategies to foster a high-functioning collaborative environment.

• Define measurable outcomes and evaluation methods.

The assignment should demonstrate analytical depth rather than descriptive reporting and must integrate scholarly evidence to support all major claims.

Assessment Requirements

1. Identification of the Clinical Problem

Clearly define a specific healthcare problem such as:

• Hospital-acquired infections

• Patient falls

• Medication errors

• Delayed discharge planning

• Communication breakdown during transitions of care

Your discussion must:

• Provide context using available safety indicators, audit findings, or benchmarking data where possible.

• Explain the scale and impact of the issue on patients, staff, and organisational performance.

• Demonstrate why the problem requires coordinated interprofessional action.

• Distinguish between isolated clinical incidents and systemic organisational patterns.

The problem statement should be focused, measurable, and aligned with broader healthcare quality standards.

2. Leadership Profile

Identify a leadership theory such as:

• Servant Leadership

• Situational Leadership

• Authentic Leadership

• Transformational Leadership

You must:

• Define the selected theory using scholarly sources.

• Explain how its principles align with your professional values.

• Demonstrate how this leadership approach will guide communication, delegation, accountability, and team motivation.

• Compare briefly with an alternative leadership model to justify your selection.

Application must be explicit and contextualised to the identified clinical issue.

3. Interprofessional Team Analysis

Identify key stakeholders from at least three different professional disciplines, for example:

• Nursing

• Medicine

• Pharmacy

• Physical Therapy

• Social Work

• Infection Control

• Quality Improvement Officers

For each discipline, describe:

• Their professional responsibilities related to the issue.

• Their unique expertise and contribution to problem resolution.

• Potential barriers to collaboration and strategies to overcome them.

• How role clarity will reduce duplication or conflict.

Demonstrate insight into interdisciplinary synergy and the value of shared accountability.

4. Collaboration Strategies

Propose three evidence-based strategies to strengthen team communication and resolve conflict, such as:

• SBAR structured communication

• TeamSTEPPS training

• Daily safety huddles

• Structured debrief sessions

• Digital shared care plans

For each strategy:

• Explain how it will be implemented.

• Identify responsible personnel.

• Clarify how effectiveness will be evaluated.

• Consider sustainability over time.

Strategies must be supported by recent peer-reviewed evidence and linked directly to the identified problem.

5. Success Metrics

Define measurable indicators that will evaluate the effectiveness of the collaboration plan, such as:

• Reduction in incident rates

• Decrease in infection prevalence

• Improved patient satisfaction scores

• Staff engagement survey improvements

• Reduced readmission rates

Explain:

• How baseline data will be collected.

• The timeline for evaluation.

• The criteria for determining success.

• Mechanisms for continuous improvement if targets are not achieved.

Evaluation methods should demonstrate accountability and alignment with organisational governance standards.

Submission Guidelines

• Format: Microsoft Word document

• Style: APA 7th Edition, Professional format

• Word Count: 1,050 to 1,250 words

• References: Minimum of five peer-reviewed sources published within the last five years

Formatting expectations include double spacing, 12-point professional font, clear APA-aligned headings, accurate in-text citations, and a complete reference list. Academic tone must remain formal, objective, and free from unsupported opinion.

Scoring Rubric

Recent scholarship confirms that interprofessional collaboration improves patient safety outcomes, reduces communication errors, and enhances team performance when supported by structured leadership practices (Weller et al., 2020). Research on emerging nurse leaders indicates that effective collaboration depends on psychological safety, clear expectations, and distributed accountability within clinical systems (Dyess et al., 2023). Contemporary leadership frameworks emphasise relational transparency, ethical decision-making, and organisational learning as core components of sustainable improvement (Northouse, 2024). Evidence further demonstrates that high-functioning interprofessional teams contribute to measurable reductions in preventable adverse events and increased staff engagement when leadership behaviours reinforce open dialogue and shared responsibility (Rosen et al., 2018).

Interprofessional collaboration functions as a structural mechanism through which leadership influences patient safety and organisational performance. Empirical studies demonstrate that structured team communication models significantly reduce preventable adverse events when combined with psychologically safe environments and shared accountability (Weller et al., 2020). Leaders who adopt authentic and participatory approaches facilitate open dialogue and strengthen trust across professional boundaries. Such integration of leadership theory with collaborative practice enhances not only clinical outcomes but also workforce stability and organisational resilience.

Learning Materials and Resources

Dyess, S. M., Sherman, R. O., Pratt, B. A., & Chiang-Hanisko, L. (2023). Growing nurse leaders: Their perspectives on nursing leadership and the future. Journal of Nursing Management, 31(2), 145–152. https://doi.org/10.1111/jonm.13890

Northouse, P. G. (2024). Leadership: Theory and practice (10th ed.). SAGE Publications.

Rosen, M. A., DiazGranados, D., Dietz, A. S., Itri, J. N., Pronovost, P. J., & Weaver, S. J. (2018). Teamwork in healthcare: Key discoveries enabling safer, high-quality care. American Psychologist, 73(4), 433–450. https://doi.org/10.1037/amp0000298

Weller, J., Boyd, M., & Cumin, D. (2020). Interprofessional teamworking and patient safety. Medical Journal of Australia, 212(9), 415–420. https://doi.org/10.5694/mja2.50537

Reeves, S., Pelone, F., Harrison, R., Goldman, J., & Zwarenstein, M. (2022). Interprofessional collaboration to improve professional practice and healthcare outcomes. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews. https://doi.org/10.1002/14651858.CD000072.pub3