Implementing interdisciplinary practice change in an international health-care organization

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.