title: Implementing interdisciplinary practice change in an international health-care organization.
abstract: The current emphasis on adopting evidence-based practice often results in the need to change interdisciplinary practice. This article describes the successful system-wide change to evidence-based wound care practices in a large, Middle-Eastern health services organization using a multinational workforce. Elements within this change initiative are identified that stimulated experimentation and collaboration among members of this organization's workforce while also preserving culturally determined expectations for authority and decision-making. The result was a system-wide practice change accomplished through consensus-building and interdisciplinary learning while also utilizing the strengths to be found in an established organizational hierarchy. This description of practice change among the members of a multicultural, multinational workforce provides lessons for managing a diversity of perspectives, creating consensus and accomplishing change in an environment where multiple cultural values intersect.
authors.affiliation: School of Nursing, New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, New Mexico 88007, USA. nagelk@mcmaster.ca
authors.forename: Anita C
authors.initials: AC
authors.lastname: Reinhardt
authors.forename: Teresa
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Keller
mesh_terms: D004059:Diffusion of Innovation; D055317:Evidence-Based Practice; D006801:Humans; D033183:Interdisciplinary Communication; D007391:International Cooperation; D008877:Middle East; D009096:Multi-Institutional Systems; D011785:Quality Assurance, Health Care; D014945:Wound Healing