Nurse and Physician Team up in Michigan to Improve Health Care Outcomes

Interprofessional collaboration greatly improves health care outcomes, say two health care professionals, both alums of Robert Wood Foundation nurse leaders programs. Sara Pendleton, M.D., an alumnus of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF) Clinical Scholar (1996-1998) program and Charlotte Mather, M.B.A., RN, an alumnus (2008-2011) of the RWJF Executive Nurse Fellows program, are excited about what their collaborative effort can do to improve the quality of care, safety, and patient satisfaction rates. Mather and Pendleton say they do everything together, but assess the impact of programs on patients from different perspectives that’s not adversarial, but provide valuable insights for each other. Mather says the key to success is the kind of interprofessional collaboration that she and Pendleton enjoy. They are in total agreement with the findings of the Institute of Medicine report released last year, The Future of Nursing: Leading Change, Advancing Health,  that recommends nurses and physicians be full partners in providing health care. Read more.