N505PE Activity 6 Applying Self-Determination Theory

Student Name

Post University

SIMPATH_N505PE

Professor Name

April 25th, 2023

Application of Inter-Professional Theories 

Introduction

Motivation can be defined with the help of Self-Determination Theory (SDT), which was created by Edward Deci and Richard Ryan. SDT assumes that the individuals have the three psychological needs to work, connect with others, and make decisions for themselves in order to achieve intrinsic motivation, optimal experience, and optimal functioning. In this case, people are motivated to engage in certain activities out of interest, perceived pleasure, and perceived significance of their self. 

 The need for competence is characterized by the perception of being capable of successfully dealing with the environment and having chances to actualize and display one’s abilities. Relatedness includes the feelings of being cared for and the feeling of being part of a community or group. Independence is the ability to regulate the content and process of experience and conduct and to function consonant with the consolidated self-image (Cherry, 2022). According to SDT, the promotion of these basic psychological needs makes people more prone to accept the value of activities and perform them with no coercion or pressure. 

 SDT has been implemented in different domains, including school, family, health, sports, and work contexts (Cherry, 2022). Other studies have established that people perform better when their psychological needs are being fulfilled with support from the social environment.

Applying SDT to Interprofessional Nursing Education

SDT is essential to be applied to optimize IPE in situations where nursing students engage with students from other disciplines. This way, nursing educators can engage students’ competence, relatedness, and autonomy needs in an IPE context and promote intrinsic motivation toward IPE (Guay, 2021). This is important because research has indicated that self-generated interest students enjoy their learning process more, comprehend concepts better, solve problems, and apply what they have learned in new settings. 

 Collaboration with the interprofessional team is crucial to the students’ future practice as professional nurses, requiring the skills to interact with physicians, pharmacists, social workers, physical therapists, and others (Guay, 2021). However, the literature reveals that nursing students emerge from their education level with little preparation for interprofessional teamwork. Using SDT in the context of IPE can balance this effort and enhance the preparation of nursing graduates for interprofessional collaborative practice.

Supporting Competence in Interprofessional Collaboration

Essential to the success of this approach is the need to ensure that nursing students achieve proficiency in interprofessional teamwork. Educators can support this need by: 

• Clarify the purpose and learning outcome of IPE activities so the students know what they are pursuing and what they are achieving. 
• Providing feedback and creating scenarios for practical practice of skills (Hosseini et al., 2022), and debriefing sessions allowing students to discuss what they consider to be their positive attributes as good parents and aspects that they need to improve on. 
• Organizing IPE in such a way that it develops from simple to more complex (Hosseini et al., 2022), enabling students to use newly acquired competencies to apprehend and solve more complex problems with multiple aspects, critical decisions, and uncertainty of outcomes.

 Whenever students engage in interprofessional interaction and are given the ability to articulate and develop their abilities in teamwork, they are more likely to embrace collaborative practice (Hosseini et al., 2022). Competence support also assists students in gaining confidence in their ability to bring something valuable to the interprofessional teams, hence increasing their motivation for collaboration.

Fostering Relatedness on Interprofessional Teams

The following are some of the reasons why nursing students should be able to have a relatedness and feeling of being a member of the interprofessional team:

• Making sure students can meet each other and form bonds, which can include icebreakers, team building (Ross & Barnes, 2018) (Ganotice et al., 2023), and social events where students can engage on a more personal level. 
• Enabling students to work in groups to understand that to get things done (Ganotice et al., 2023), they require relying on and receiving support from others, just as clients rely on and seek support from healthcare professionals.
• Motivating students to encourage their teammates and to offer positive comments and suggestions to them and to share their views and strengths.

 When nursing students feel cared for and connected to other students in their interprofessional team, they are more likely to appreciate the value of interprofessional practice and to remain committed to collaborative practice despite conflict (Ganotice et al., 2023). Relatedness also plays an important role in making students more empathetic and appreciating the roles of other players in a healthcare team, which is vital when working together.

Promoting Autonomy in Interprofessional Practice

When learning in interprofessional teams, nursing students need to be able to manage themselves and feel that they are directly responsible for learning and contributing (Messineo et al., 2019). Educators can promote this need by:

• Providing options and options within IPE activities and assessments, giving students a voice in how they will approach the IPE material and learning. 
• Assigning students leadership responsibilities to their teams, like scheduling a team meeting or planning a presentation (Messineo et al., 2019).
• Enabling students to actively contribute to decisions regarding processes in a team, for example, determining the ground rules (Messineo et al., 2019), as well as responsibilities and handling of different conflicts. 

 If nursing students see that they have control over the how and what of IPE, they are likely to accept the personal responsibility for their learning as well as the internal value of the IPE (Messineo et al., 2019). Thus, autonomy support assists the students in critical thinking and problem solving since they have to think through the various solutions from different angles and choose what is right for them.

Conclusion

Thus, using self-determination theory as a framework for approaching interprofessional nursing education can contribute to raising the levels of intrinsic motivation for collaboration. Nursing programs can directly address students’ psychological needs for competence, relatedness, and autonomy in order to foster greater student engagement, resilience, and transfer of interprofessional knowledge and skills into their nursing careers. Those who will demonstrate internal motivation to collaborate will be well placed in successfully practicing in interprofessional teams to enhance the outcomes of patients and progress the nursing profession. 

 Lastly, the Self-Determination Theory is effective in increasing the understanding of interprofessional nursing education. By meeting students’ psychological needs of competence, relatedness, and autonomy, the nursing curriculum can positively influence students’ autonomous motivation for collaboration and equip them with the necessary skills to work effectively in team settings in various healthcare organizations. Thus, the application of SDT to IPE is crucial to move towards developing collaborative teamwork for patients and also well-being for the professional development of the nursing discipline.