Capella FPX 4005 Assessment 4

Name

Capella university

NURS-FPX4005 Nursing Leadership: Focusing on People, Processes, and Organizations

Prof. Name

Date

Stakeholder Presentation

(Slide 1) Hello, everyone, and thank you for the opportunity to present this proposal aimed at enhancing communication and reducing burnout in the NICU (Neonatal intensive care unit) at Hackensack Meridian Health. Today, we will discuss an evidence-based interdisciplinary plan to improve patient safety, staff well-being, and care coordination. This presentation is tailored for key stakeholders such as nurses, neonatologists, administration staff, and staffing coordinators whose engagement and support are essential to successfully implementing and sustaining these improvements.

Presentation Overview 

(Slide 2) The presentation identifies vital NICU problems related to communication breakdowns and staffing issues that negatively affect patient outcomes while presenting a team-based solution design. The plan will integrate evidence-based guidelines guiding its framework while presenting implementation steps, human resource and financial asset management procedures, and evidence-based success evaluation parameters. This model executes three areas that educate the audience and maintain alignment to enhance neonatal care while building team partnerships.

Organizational Issue

(Slide 3) A high-intensity NICU demands both effective communication practices and beneficial staffing management. The NICU faces errors in addition to delayed care and staff burnout through fragmented communication and inconsistent documentation, while unbalanced workloads play their part. These obstacles generate elevated stress for clinicians along with professional burnout and increase their potential errors in offering patient treatment (Bell et al., 2023). A significant proportion of NICU providers reported moderate to high levels of moral distress (47%) and burnout (35%), with nurses experiencing higher levels than physicians (Carletto et al., 2022).

Organized interprofessional structures with the active involvement of all team members will unite healthcare efforts to create better neonatal results. The NICU enhances team performance by implementing structured training, standardized communication protocols, leadership backing, and technology system incorporation (Bell et al., 2023). These approaches boost organizational adaptability while cutting down coordination mistakes and creating platforms for psychological safety with team collaboration.

Consequences of Not Addressing the Issue

(Slide 4) If left unaddressed, multiple problems rooted in the system lead to serious negative results. The failure of communication and staffing inefficiencies directly lead to poor team spirit among staff, elevated healthcare spending, and increased employee turnover. Implementing a team strategy among experts from different fields represents an essential and constructive solution for maintaining high-quality patient care and operational stability. A study highlights that approximately 23% of NICU professionals experience significant post-traumatic stress symptoms (PTSS), and 28% report burnout, with nurses more affected than physicians.

It is driven by frequent exposure to infant suffering, critical incidents, ethical dilemmas, high workload, emotional exhaustion, and insufficient institutional support (Ravaldi et al., 2023). The organizational standard of care suffers from these consequences, and patients experience family dysfunctions because parents of neonates report communication lapses from staff communication and burnout (Guttmann et al., 2024). High-quality communication between staff members needs multi-team participation to establish family-based compassionate practices that foster hope.

Relevance of an Interdisciplinary Team Approach

(Slide 5) The proper solution to resolve communication breakdowns and staff burnout in the NICU requires disciplinary teamwork. The integrated team of nurses, neonatologists, case managers, and administrative professionals combines separate areas of knowledge to achieve united patient-focused care. The complex care needs in the emotionally challenging NICU setting require unified teamwork instead of independent work. Interdisciplinary collaboration brings together teams through respectful practices of shared decisions and clear communication, decreasing role misunderstandings while improving workflow performance. Standardized interdisciplinary rounds supported by SBAR (Situation Background Assessment Recommendation) communication tools help teams achieve a united understanding of patient status and planned care initiatives.

The combined effect of this strategy protects staff members’ mental and emotional health while leading to better neonatal results from properly timed, coordinated treatments. Interdisciplinary collaboration within critical care units produces better outcomes, including lower adverse events, decreased hospitalization duration, and more content staff members (Sharma & Friede, 2023). Through its interdisciplinary structure, the model supports an environment that combines team collaboration with psychological safety and accountability for sustained enhancements to patient outcomes alongside improved staff work conditions. 

Interdisciplinary Plan Summary

(Slide 6) The section provides an overview of the plan for addressing the communication issue and staff burnout in the NICU using the PDSA (Plan, Do, Study, Act) cycle. The cycle helps organizations continuously improve processes and outcomes through a structured, iterative approach to testing and refining changes in real-world settings (Chen et al., 2020). 

• Plan: A research-backed plan involves team strategies from multiple disciplines to resolve the critical issues affecting NICU teams. Firstly, an AHRQ-endorsed program called TeamSTEPPS is planned to enhance team performance, communication, and leadership practices between healthcare professionals. Secondly, SBAR handoff protocols will be incorporated to deliver consistent clarity, decreasing transmission errors at team handover. Further, daily interdisciplinary team meetings should be conducted to promote real-time, collaborative care planning and shared responsibility among all providers. Technology is essential for better communication and staff management, so through secure messaging tools in EHR platforms, NICU teams can maintain continuous collaboration, especially during personnel shift changes that occur within the group. Lastly, a psychologically safe environment is planned to be incorporated, allowing staff members to express their viewpoints, thus building an atmosphere of mutual accountability and trust between colleagues.

Capella FPX 4005 Assessment 4

• Do: The application area includes a two-month assessment of TeamSTEPPS and SBAR protocols within the NICU. The healthcare team will initiate daily cross-department meetings and add secure EHR communication options to deliver instant communication between staff members. The staff recruits training programs about brief psychological safety to enhance trust relationships between team members.
• Study: Information regarding communication errors or delays will be gathered during the entire pilot period. Healthcare staff will measure burnout ratings through well-validated assessment instruments, including the MBI tool. Parental satisfaction with communication and team performance metrics (e.g., handoff effectiveness and response time) will be observed. The assessment will measure improvement outcomes by analyzing data before and after implementation to detect possible barriers.
• Act: Evaluating communication strategies will determine strategic adjustments with proven successful practices for NICU-wide implementation. Conduct specific solutions for identified obstacles by providing additional educational resources and restructuring work processes. The program should become a permanent element of standard NICU organizational practice for maintaining staff welfare and improving patient results.

Supporting Evidence for the Plan

(Slide 7) All components of the interdisciplinary approach stem from verified healthcare studies and professional guidelines. For instance, the endorsement by AHRQ endorses TeamSTEPPS as an effective approach for transforming teamwork and error reduction (Aurele et al., 2023). The Joint Commission recognizes the important function of formal handoff procedures (such as SBAR) in enhancing patient safety as handover completeness increased significantly (from 62% to 92%), with fewer omissions of critical information (Ghosh et al., 2021). The studies by Carletto et al. (2022) and Ravaldi et al. (2023) discuss NICU staff’s need for psychological safety in high-pressure work environments through interventions like peer support and mental health resources to address moral distress and burnout, which could foster psychological safety implicitly.

Aurele et al. (2023) explicitly mention huddles as a strategy for improving communication and teamwork in the NICU, as interdisciplinary huddles produce improved planning and enhanced team cohesiveness. Lastly, EHR-integrated messaging provides teams with an efficient way to share accurate information while working with dynamic group compositions. For instance, EHR templates and structured notes reduce ambiguity and improve clarity in interdisciplinary exchanges, and EHRs support workflow by enabling task assignment and tracking, streamlining collaboration in multidisciplinary teams (Vos et al., 2020).

Implementation and Resource Management 

(Slide 8) The Hackensack Meridian Health NICU will modify its staff scheduling to incorporate 15-minute daily huddles to improve team coordination. It will implement this change with no or minimal financial cost (Brickson et al., 2024). The staff will receive brief training about configuring and introducing EPIC’s built-in tools, including chat and schedule coordination. TeamSTEPPS-based education and SBAR as a communication model will provide NICU staff with the tools they need to collaborate effectively in a structured manner. Leadership must actively participate to protect psychological safety and resolve role ambiguity by monitoring staff performance effectively, or there will be financial consequences (Fu et al., 2023).

(Slide 9) The organization will maximize human resources by adding permanent nursing positions or by growing the floating staff, lowering agency nurse costs by 30% higher than full-time staff. Enhancing EPIC and staff training through financial investment amounts to $10,000–$15,000, representing a reasonable cost when measured against the anticipated expenses from persistent staff turnover and inadequate communication procedures. The current shift schedule will include daily huddles instead of separate meeting budgets for additional meetings. Excellent staff support combined with enhanced care coordination will help the organization prevent personnel turnover expenses and protect its reputation while securing financial stability in the long term (Fu et al., 2023).

Evaluation 

(Slide 10) We used quantifiable evidence-based assessment criteria to determine the outcome of our interdisciplinary project to enhance communication and lower staff burnout in the NICU at Hackensack Meridian Health. The first objective is to strengthen patient handover quality with a target accuracy level of 95%. The evaluation method will employ communication audits in a way comparable to the findings of Ghosh et al. (2021), where they achieved significant progress with the SBAR handoff tool. The NICU staff burnout rates measurement will use the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) to track results, as outlined by Carletto et al. (2022) and Ravaldi et al. (2023).

Staff stress and moral distress levels will be reduced to less than 20% using measurement methods including the Moral Distress Scale-Revised and Impact of Event Scale-Revised. The goal is to achieve 80% or greater satisfaction from parents regarding NICU communication, as measured through the Quality of Communication (QOC) scale, which Guttmann et al. (2024) employed. The selected tools will serve as evidence-based metrics that allow us to monitor the concrete results of our work in building better teamwork, staff welfare, and family communication practices.

Conclusion

(Slide 11) This integrated proposal delivers a complete solution to fix the communication problems and burnout issues in the NICU at Hackensack Meridian Health. We recognized the main difficulties of fragmented communication, unclear documentation, and staffing stress. We implemented evidence-based solutions, including TeamSTEPPS training, SBAR protocols, daily huddles, and EHR integration as targeted interventions. Team-based strategies deliver multiple functions that support security and safety improvements, workforce mental health protection, and staff member retention.

The strategy follows stakeholder priorities because it supports affordable implementation, measurable results, and continued team involvement. Our investment into structured communication and psychological safety builds a NICU setting, which allows both care teams to succeed and families to receive proper support. Your essential leadership and collaboration will drive this initiative forward while developing a culture of top-notch neonatal care.

(Slide 12) Thank you for your time and commitment to improving our NICU. I am happy to answer any questions.

References

Aurele, K. M., Branche, T., Adams, A., Feister, J., Boyle, K., & Scala, M. (2023). Recommendations for creating a collaborative NICU environment to support teamwork and trainee education. Journal of Perinatology, 43(12), 1520–1525. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41372-023-01756-8 

Bell, E. A., Rufrano, G. A., Traylor, A., Ohning, B. L., & Salas, E. (2023). Enhancing team success in the neonatal intensive care unit: Challenges and opportunities for fluid teams. Frontiers in Psychology, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2023.1284606 

Brickson, C., Keniston, A., Knees, M., & Burden, M. (2024). Characterizing electronic messaging use among hospitalists and its association with patient volumes. Journal of Hospital Medicine, 19(12), 1131–1137. https://doi.org/10.1002/jhm.13462  

Capella FPX 4005 Assessment 4

Carletto, S., Ariotti, M. C., Garelli, G., Di Noto, L., Berchialla, P., Malandrone, F., Guardione, R., Boarino, F., Campagnoli, M. F., Savant Levet, P., Bertino, E., Ostacoli, L., & Coscia, A. (2022). Moral distress and burnout in neonatal intensive care unit healthcare providers: A cross-sectional study in Italy. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(14), 8526. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph19148526 

Chen, Y., VanderLaan, P. A., & Heher, Y. K. (2020). Using the model for improvement and plan-do-study-act to effect SMART change and advance quality. Cancer Cytopathology, 129(1), 9–14. https://doi.org/10.1002/cncy.22319 

Fu, M., Song, W., Yu, G., Yu, Y., & Yang, Q. (2023). Risk factors for length of NICU stay of newborns: A systematic review. Frontiers in Pediatrics, 11. https://doi.org/10.3389/fped.2023.1121406 

Ghosh, S., Ramamoorthy, L., & pottakat, B. (2021). Impact of structured clinical handover protocol on communication and patient satisfaction. Journal of Patient Experience, 8(1), 1–6. https://doi.org/10.1177/2374373521997733 

Guttmann, K. F., Raviv, G. N., Fortney, C. A., Ramirez, M., & Smith, C. B. (2024). Parent perspectives on communication quality in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. Advances in Neonatal Care, 24(4). https://doi.org/10.1097/anc.0000000000001178 

Ravaldi, C., Mosconi, L., Mannetti, L., Checconi, M., Bonaiuti, R., Ricca, V., Mosca, F., Dani, C., & Vannacci, A. (2023). Post-traumatic stress symptoms and burnout in healthcare professionals working in neonatal intensive care units: Results from the STRONG study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 14. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2023.1050236 

Capella FPX 4005 Assessment 4

Sharma, S., & Friede, R. (2023, April 10). Multidisciplinary rounds in the ICU. Nih.gov. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK507776/ 

Vos, J. F. J., Boonstra, A., Kooistra, A., Seelen, M., & van Offenbeek, M. (2020). The influence of electronic health record use on collaboration among medical specialties. BMC Health Services Research, 20(1), 1–11. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12913-020-05542-6