NURS-FPX4010 Interview and Interdisciplinary Issue Identification

Interview Summary

I interviewed a nurse who works as a practitioner at Metropolitan Hospital. She is engaged in the hospital’s emergency unit, where patients who have been involved in accidents or are in critical condition are received before being processed for examination by the doctors. During her working hours, she is in charge of operations and other nurses at her unit. I picked several issues from the interview session that spread throughout the hospital. At the emergency room, about seven nurses are covering several casualties. The main problem involves assigning nurses in the emergency room to other units, like critical care, without authorization from the unit leader. Thus, in most cases, there are only two nurses in the emergency room when the recommended number should be seven nurses. It leads to an overload of available nurses, causing long queues in the emergency room. Although the hospital’s management is reluctant to address these concerns, which contributes to poor healthcare delivery. Ideally, nurses in the emergency room work long hours and attend to more casualties beyond their capacity.

I also picked communication issues, especially between young nurses and older nurses. Older nurses tend to withhold key information from junior nurses even though they are supposed to offer leadership and guidance to younger nurses. The main challenge comes when the hospital cannot avail enough resources for use by all nurses, thus forcing some of the nurses, especially senior nurses, to ignore junior nurses while distributing such items. The interdisciplinary team’s role is to ensure equitable distribution of items within the hospital to support all staff members.

Issue Identification

There is a huge staff shortage and funding at the hospital, which is detrimental to the operations of the facility and a risk to the well-being of patients admitted to the hospital. The workload at the emergency room is a concern because patients take much time to be processed, despite some having critical conditions that require urgent attention. Staff overload is prone in many hospitals since the number of casualties can never be determined. However, comprehensive management mechanisms ensure these patients receive the best care, irrespective of the situation. Metropolitan hospital applies the same approach repeatedly, and the management is adamant about improving staffing, especially in the emergency room, thus causing endless ripples in the unit. There is a need for a progressive team approach, which may involve engaging student graduates, incorporating externship programs, improving work culture, and identifying innovative ways of solving the crisis (Hussain et al., 2018). Thus, it would only be fair to incorporate progressive measures to ensure that patient’s welfare remains a priority for the organization.