Redesigning the primary care system in America has become a national priority as the United States (US) struggles to solve issues of poor access, high cost, and suboptimal quality. The Institute of Medicine (IOM) recently highlighted the critical role that nurses will play in this redesign (IOM, 2011). Increasingly the delivery of primary health care depends on the contributions of various team members that represent different disciplines. It may be assumed that bringing together different health providers will make a team. But an effective team must develop over time.Our practice, a nurse-led Advanced Practice Nurse clinic, is in year two of a three-yearpilot program for an Intraprofessional Collaborative Care Practice (IPCP) /Education Model with the central core of the model being the role of a Nurse Patient Advocate (NPA). The disciplines represented are nursing, pharmacy, dental, and social work--as well as nonclinical staff. The NPA coordinates patient-centered team-based primary care. Based on the experiences in the pilot program; review of the literature; and expert input, challenges were identified. Our experiences revealed team conflict which included: role boundary issues; scope of practice, and a lack of understanding of how the role of the Nurse Patient Advocate could be effective as the core member of the team. Exploration of the role of the NPA in the IPCP, evaluation of the program over the last two years, guided the development of strategies for resolving team conflict and communication barriers to ensure the delivery of a team-based approach to patient centered care. Interprofessional Collaborative Care Practice Models improves care by increasing the coordination of services.

Biography:
Dr. Linda Omondi is a Clinical Associate Professor at Southern Illinois University-Edwardsville (SIUE), Edwardsville, Illinois. She completed her undergraduate education at The John Hopkins University, Baltimore, Maryland, the MS-FNP at Georgia State University, Atlanta, Georgia, and the Doctor of Nursing Practice at The Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia. She was the former owner of a nurse-managed clinic for 10 years. As the Clinical Coordinator of the SIUE WE CARE clinic, she oversees the clinical coordination of the Interprofessional Collaborative Care Practice that includes the disciplines of Nursing, Dental, Pharmacy, and Social Work. In 2015, the clinic was funded for a three year-1.3 million dollar Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) grant for interprofessional collaborative education and practice.