For patients to experience the highest level of care, the healthcare professional must be able to

cooperate and collaborate with other healthcare professionals and exhibit teamwork, mutual
trust, and friendship. Teamwork is essential in boosting employee morale and achieving the best
patient outcomes. Interprofessional collaboration is vital because it allows patients to receive
care from multiple providers and specialists who enhance holistic and comprehensive treatment.
Interprofessional collaboration is essential because patients receive care from multiple providers
and specialists who would provide the most holistic and comprehensive treatment. The nurses
involved must work well with different professionals and ensure that the entire continuum of
care provides high-quality standards of care. Patients who stay for an extended period receive
treatment from multiple professionals, requiring the providers to be on the same page clinically
and professionally.

I was involved in an interdisciplinary collaboration in our state whereby we attended to

traumatized patients after getting involved in a road accident. The interdisciplinary team
consisted of surgeons, emergency room physicians, nurses, therapists, lab specialists, and
imaging specialists, and they all worked to ensure the patient's treatment and recovery. When
devising a coordinated care plan, the interdisciplinary team made some patient-centered
considerations to improve the quality of care. For instance, we considered the patient's symptoms
and needs, the right person to address the patient's needs, the best interventions for positive
outcomes, and the goals of each intervention. The collaboration achieved some desired outcomes
because the team was very innovative. The team had a practical framework that supported
balanced decision-making, productive problem-solving, and systematic thinking on how the
patient could fully recover. The patient was examined for any trauma and injury. Her needs were
assessed and approached systematically by assessing the severity of the injury, checking if her
airway was obstructed in any way, assessing if the breathing was normal to establish the need for
assisted ventilation, determining signs of severe bleeding, and assessing the level of
consciousness. We conducted a thorough examination to understand any signs of trauma,
bleeding, skin reaction, or rashes, which was essential in assisting the professionals in treating
underlying trauma.

The team successfully achieved its goals because decisions were made after a close collaboration
of representatives, which enhanced a deeper understanding and resulted in less resistance within
the team. The individuals in the team did not only focus on their practice but were also aware of
the practice of others and how they contributed to the continuum of care. For the team to
establish a common ground, there was a need to do joint research so that the traumatized patient
became every member's concern hence creating a cross-functional alignment on the issue much
more accessible. Through joint research, every decision maker could empathize, and through the
newfound awareness, it was possible to align on the patient's issue. Good team leadership led to
minimized resistance, and this was achieved by ensuring the team defined a clear follow-up step
to address the patient's issue. The team acknowledged that differences in opinions were good
opportunities to learn and fine-tune solutions, which helped the team make more confident
decisions. The team was guided by a shared vision stipulated by the need to promote positive
patient outcomes. However, the team was challenged by a lack of adequate and appropriate
resources, and this led to a dip in the team's morale, and their commitment began waning.

Poor collaboration is detrimental to the healthcare organization and patient outcomes. For
instance, it makes the team members feel disengaged and unaccountable to the workforce,
resulting in time wastage, which is reflected in the organization's bottom line. Poor collaboration
means that the members are not on the same page, work-related processes are not smoothly and
seamlessly executed, members lack access to essential information, and team members lack a
clear understanding of the team's priorities and vision. Poor collaboration results in a lack of
innovation; hence they cannot design out-of-the-box solutions, do not leverage diverse
backgrounds and experiences, and not spread valuable information. Bloem et al. (2020) note that
poor collaboration negatively impacts morale and team cohesion because members do not
support each other toward a common goal or strive to find the meaning of work. Poor
collaboration leads to low employee engagement and accountability, making them
unreproductive.

The interdisciplinary team's ability to achieve the set goals can be enhanced by improving
collaboration in the workforce. According to Aggarwal and Ramachandran (2020), the
organization can improve collaboration by devising a clear strategy for collaboration to ensure
all individuals are set on board failure, to which they will be partially disengaged. With a
structured approach, leadership commitment is seen in their commitment to creating a
collaborative environment that enables professionals to do their part. It's also essential to identify
the aspects that would hold back the team members from collaborating. Identifying the factors
that limit collaboration can be done through organization-wide research that would provide team
leaders with information essential for effectively navigating the issues. It's also necessary to
ensure a clear purpose for the collaboration strategy so that the team members understand the
need for collaboration. Effective collaboration can also be enhanced by ensuring proper
incentives and reward systems, as this will ensure the members identify with the behaviors that
define collaboration.

According to Moirano et al. (2020), some of the strategies that would foster interdisciplinary
collaboration entails defining the team's goals, establishing an open channel for communication,
promoting mutual respect and trust, encouraging active participation from all team members, and
providing members with opportunities for ongoing training and development.