Reaching collaboration through empowerment: a developmental process

Nurses are well positioned to play an influential role in health care reform. As the concept of collaboration takes on new meanings, nurses must be prepared to function in interdisciplinary groups. They need to move from a unidisciplinary model of problem solving through a nursing approach to a multidisciplinary model, where different professions work as equal members of a team. The ultimate goal is to reach an interdisciplinary model in which team members from a variety of disciplines modify their perspective in light of other perspectives. Empowerment is viewed as an individual developmental process that occurs in stages during a period of time. Nurses will be better able to collaborate in an egalitarian manner once they have personally become empowered. It is up to nursing to seize the opportunity to become an equal partner in today's health care.