Week 4: The Doctorally Prepared Nurse: Professional Collaboration and Community of Practice
What is meant by a community of practice?
A community of practice represents a group of individuals who share a common purpose and desire to positively impact their practice and share ideas, perspectives, and lessons learned to enhance the proficiency with which to engage in practice.
Not surprisingly, as a profession, nursing already represents a critical community of practice. Moreover, DNP-prepared nurses are uniquely poised to lead and install changes of a transformative capacity within a community of practice due to their skill set of understanding and engaging in evidence-based practice. As a future DNP-prepared nurse, how do you see yourself engaging with or leading a community of practice?
This week, you will examine intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing practice and consider the strengths and weaknesses of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing practice. You will also examine community and organizational needs, challenges, and issues and consider the role of the DNP-prepared nurse in addressing these. In this examination, you will consider and recommend practice changes that will meet community and organizational needs, challenges, and issues.
Learning Objectives
Students will:
- Analyze intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing practice
- Analyze strengths and weaknesses of interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing practice
- Evaluate community and organization needs, challenges, and issues
- Analyze the role of the DNP-prepared nurse in addressing community and organization needs, challenges, and issues
- Recommend practice changes and interventions that address community and organization needs, challenges, and issues
Learning Resources
Required Readings (click to expand/reduce)
Blog 1: How Do You Practice Intra- and Interdisciplinary Collaboration in Practice?
- You are the DNP-prepared nurse responsible for overseeing a large intensive care unit (ICU). You have noticed that in the last 3 months, the number of nosocomial, or hospital-acquired infections (HAIs), has dramatically increased among patients who have undergone cardiovascular procedures. You would like to initiate a practice study to determine the source of these HAIs and to improve patient outcomes in your ICU.
- Photo Credit: Andrey Popov / Adobe Stock
What types of interdisciplinary collaboration might be needed to support the goals of your practice study?
As outlined in the scenario, the likelihood to engage in interdisciplinary collaboration to enhance healthcare delivery and nursing practice is high. In fact, it is likely that the DNP-prepared nurse in the scenario presented may need to collaborate with an infection prevention specialist (who may be a PhD-prepared nurse or PhD-credentialed healthcare professional). While this represents only one potential area in which interprofessional collaboration may take place in advanced nursing practice, it is important to keep in mind that when disciplines work together toward a shared goal that focuses on the patient, the quality and cost of care delivered will be optimized (Johnson & Johnson, 2016).
For this Blog Assignment, review the Learning Resources and reflect on strategies that may be used to foster interdisciplinary collaboration in nursing practice. Reflect on strategies and approaches you might recommend that support interdisciplinary collaboration in practice.
Reference:
Johnson & Johnson. (2016). The importance of interprofessional collaboration in healthcare. https://nursing.jnj.com/getting-real-nursing-today/the-importance-of-interprofessional-collaboration-in-healthcare#.W48V5JNKiu4
To prepare:
- Review the Henry et. al. (2018) article in this week’s Learning Resources about collaboration through case study design.
- Reflect on how the approach of case study design may apply toward fostering intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in practice.
- Select at least one of the articles from this week’s Learning Resources and reflect on how professional collaboration is executed to address the needs described in the article.
- Reflect on your own experiences with intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in your practice.
By Day 3 of Week 4
Post a response to your Blog describing your own experiences with intra- and interdisciplinary collaboration in your practice. What were the strengths and weaknesses of this collaboration? How might your own experiences mirror the perspectives and viewpoints presented in the Henry et al. (2018) case study design approach? Be specific and provide examples.
By Day 5 of Week 4
Read a selection of your colleagues’ responses and respond to at least two of your colleagues on two different days by expanding on your colleague’s post or suggesting an alternative viewpoint/perspective on the experiences described by your colleagues.
