Effective communication between nurses and other members of the healthcare
team ensures timely decision making and appropriate responses to changes in patients'
health status. According to the Institute of Medicine (2000) report, the lack of
communication between healthcare team members and nursing colleagues can threaten
the continuity of care and contribute to a fragmented system that threatens patient safety.
Nurses play a key clinical leadership role in that they are the providers most likely to
assess and identify issues that may threaten the well being of patients, and are responsible
for implementing nursing interventions in a timely way to stabilize patients until
physicians or other health team members are able to respond (Havens & Aikens, 1999).