NHS FPX 8002 Assessment 2 Demonstrating Effective Leadership

Demonstrating Effective Leadership

Overweight or obesity is a chronic medical condition impacting the population globally. Obesity is related to abnormal or high body fat levels that can harm health. According to the Centers for Disease Prevention and Control (CDC), in the United States (US), the prevalence of obesity in adults was 40.4% in 2023. The incidence rate was 39.3% in males and 41.2% in females. The high incidence of obesity among adults aged 40 to 59 is 46.5% (CDC, 2024).  This demographic is at greater risk of developing serious health conditions.

Addressing this challenging problem demands an interdisciplinary strategy engaging people, communities, medical professionals, legislators, and government entities to achieve long-term solutions and minimize the detrimental impact on the population. This paper focuses on establishing strong leadership abilities in managing Interprofessional collaboration to fight obesity in the adult population of West Virginia (WV), USA. According to American’s Health Ranking (AHR), in 2023, 41.4% of adults in WV suffered from obesity (AHR, 2023). This paper further underlines the contributing factors of obesity, fostering a coalition team and challenges and strategies to improve collaboration to address the obesity issue among the adult population.

Contributing Factors

The data from the CDC revealed that in the USA, one in five adults is obese. WV is among the three states in the USA with the highest obesity rate among the adult population, at 40.1% or more. The marginalized population, including Blacks, have 38.1% adult obesity, and Hispanics have 34.1% (CDC, 2025). In obesity, WV ranked at 48, with the adult population having a Body Mass Index (BMI) of 30.1 or more (AHR, 2023). Several factors contribute to the incidence of obesity among the adult population. For instance, Social

Determinants of Health (SDoH), including income, social position, schooling, and job, affect an individual’s access to medical care, recreational facilities, and nutritional food, ultimately raising the likelihood of obesity. Among the WV population, the poverty rate is 16.8 %, with an average income of $ 57,916. The employment rate is 4.2%. The percentage of the marginalized population, including Black and Hispanic is 3.9% and 2.3% (United States Census Bureau, 2024). Higher poverty and low employment rates indicate limited access to better lifestyles, like healthy foods and exercise spaces. As a result, the adult population develops unhealthy habits, which contribute to obesity.

Other factors, including behavioral aspects, lead to obesity. For example, emotional eating, inconsistent meal patterns, insufficient sleep, and a sedentary lifestyle can all contribute to obesity in adults. Changing the average sleep length causes the danger of obesity by modifying the effect of body lipids and Obesity-Associated Gene (FTO) variations on BMI (Masood & Moorthy, 2023). Further, prolonged habit of a sedentary lifestyle and low physical activity lowers calorie expenditure, leading to weight gain. The World Health Organization (WHO) stated that in 2016, 28.1% of global adults were physically inactive (Masood & Moorthy, 2023).

Genetic vulnerabilities are another factor leading to obesity. Inherited variables, including genes, regulate body mass index and fat accumulation. Differential genetic structure, which governs metabolism, hunger, and fat retention, raises the risk of adult overweight and obesity. Obesity genes include LEP, FTO, and LEPR (Masood & Moorthy, 2023). The genetic variations, when joined with environmental and behavioral aspects, can raise the likelihood of obesity as a persistent medical issue.  

Environmental elements such as social, economic, cultural, and physical conditions impact an individual’s habits and dietary decisions, leading to obesity (Spinner, 2022). For instance, in some cultures, people prefer to eat oily and traditional foods, which can lead to weight gain and a higher obesity risk. Spinner (2022) claimed that stigma, prejudice, sexism, physical perception, culturally different food patterns, social factors, anxiety, and religious aspects are all important elements in weight-based choice-making.

To address the contributing factors of obesity, avoidance and control approaches, like public health awareness, improving health food access, and behavioral intervention, are critical. Applying these approaches needs an interprofessional partnership between medical staff, community groups, and government officials in WV. According to Masood and Moorthy (2023), obesity results from several variables and, thus, requires contributions from an interdisciplinary team and assistance from experts.

Coalition to Address the Population Health Concern

A coalition team has been formed to target obesity among WV’s adult population. This coalition comprises stakeholders from several sectors working together to establish a comprehensive, Interprofessional approach to obesity prevention. These teammates provide various skills to address socioeconomic, external, and behavioral aspects to reduce obesity and enhance well-being for WV’s adult population.

Table 1: Coalition Team Members and Their Contribution

Issues Affecting Interprofessional Collaboration

Various challenges affect the Interprofessional cooperation of the obesity management coalition team. The major issue in collaboration is that conflict can occur among team members (Warren & Warren, 2023). It is owing to the members’ diverse practices, expertise, and opinions, which originate from different work experiences and personal convictions. For example, during obesity management among the adult WV population, medical providers can focus on personalized medical therapy for obesity care.

In contrast, government officials can focus on population-level management efforts. Diverse priorities and viewpoint causes conflict, impacting the team’s decisions. Another issue is a shortage of resources and funding. Warren and Warren (2023), stated that lacking finance and resources can impede teamwork. The funding required to form multidisciplinary teams can be lowered when assets are limited to satisfy service demand. Resources can be restricted due to the rising expenses for obesity care, poor compensation, and increasing obese populations.

Other challenges include inefficient communication among teammates because of poor communication skills, language issues, and an absence of communication routes, impeding collaboration. The linguistic difficulties limit information interpretation, and a lack of proper information-sharing channels can result in insufficient information. El-Awaisi et al. (2024), found that lack of interpersonal skills, poor professional abilities, disparities in power, and poor knowledge of the duties of other teammates can limit collaboration. These concerns impede the coalition’s ability to carry out extensive and sustainable solutions for managing obesity among the adult WV population. Addressing these issues demands effective approaches to improve partnership and foster a culture of shared goals to improve the outcomes. 

Strategies to Optimize Collaboration

Numerous evidence-based approaches are vital to improving collaboration among coalition teams. To improve team members’ communication fostering communication channels is crucial for effective collaboration. This includes formal elements and equipment, such as friendly and conversational phone calls for organizing interaction and exchanging digital patient information (El-Awaisi et al., 2024). The coalition team is dispersed throughout WV; this method is the most effective in overcoming issues with communication. Further, conducting frequent interdisciplinary meetings guarantees that the climate is suitable for collaboration and helps to empower the team to initiate and participate in collaborative endeavors (El-Awaisi et al., 2024).

This method enables members to exchange information openly, debate difficulties and issues, and reach a consensus on solutions for obesity management. Secondly, structured standards, defined tools, and procedures can be adopted to increase communication and collaboration among team members. These standards improved communication while providing an evidence-based approach to cooperation and treatment provision. Communication workshops can be held to boost interaction (Sirimsi et al., 2022).

Thirdly, conflict resolution is vital to boost collaboration, clearly defining roles and responsibilities. It aids team members in recognizing the role of others and addresses power disparity issues. Role clarification and task allocation encourage commitment and teamwork. By understanding other people’s abilities and contributions, everyone will appreciate others’ viewpoints (Sirimsi et al., 2022).

This method promotes shared knowledge and acceptance across the collaborative team, facilitating successful cooperation. Lastly, for effective collaboration, adopting a shared decision-making approach is crucial to acknowledge each other’s opinions. Sirimsi et al. (2022) asserted that fostering and improving a shared purpose, values, and targets are identified as drivers of interdisciplinary collaboration. Adopting these strategies coalition can boost obese care in WV, overcoming disparities and offering equitable services.

Ethical Considerations

Healthcare workers must consider ethical considerations as part of their role. The coalition may be needed to confront several ethical problems while working toward its objective of preventing and managing obesity among WV adults. These challenges entail a lack of access to care and other services and an uneven allocation of assets. Obese adults from marginalized areas and low-income households may have restricted access to medical facilities due to a lack of insurance, difficulty traveling, and prejudice.

The coalition must tackle this challenge utilizing ethical standards at the meso and micro levels. Principles of ethics such as autonomy, beneficence, non-maleficence, and justice come into play at the staff level (micro level) (Cheraghi et al., 2023). For instance, healthcare providers must respect patients’ autonomy, involve them in decisions made regarding their care plan, and ensure interventions like dietary changes and exercise programs are beneficial and do not inflict harm. 

Ignorance and financial barriers, such as the inability to afford healthy food and gym memberships, can reduce access to care, calling to question the justice and fairness. Providers must, therefore, speak out for affordable resources and represent socioeconomic factors when developing interventions. They must ensure equal benefit distribution under the principle of justice (Cheraghi et al., 2023).

NHS FPX 8002 Assessment 2 Demonstrating Effective Leadership

Ethical issues at the meso level (system organization) involve assuring that care for marginalized populations is equitable and attending to the systemic inequality in the distribution of resources. For instance, the coalition must ensure that obesity prevention programs are available to low-income families and policies do not discriminatively work in favor of urban areas concerning rural ones. Environmental issues, like poor opportunities for disadvantaged people to enjoy safe recreational spaces or nutritious food, make the situation challenging for people. The coalition must push for system changes to achieve health equity.

 For equal resource distribution, the team must employ fairness, beneficence, and openness as ethical principles of conduct to ensure that assets are distributed appropriately at the micro level depending on the demands of the WV population, offering equitable obesity care services to all adults.  Furthermore, on the meso level, the alliance must defend fair distribution by forming a diverse task force to oversee and monitor the distribution of resources to benefit the entire adult obese population. Promoting beneficence and justice improves patient care and fosters trust (Cheraghi et al., 2023). Ethical conduct boosts population and team satisfaction. 

Collaboration, Diversity, and Inclusion

Diversity and inclusion principles are key to the development and achievement of the coalition working against obesity in WV. While diversity encompasses employees from varied specialties and views, inclusion is where employees feel respected, comfortable, and secure in their capacity to work together. The coalition’s diversity will result in more inventive and comprehensive strategies for tackling obesity among WV’s adult population.

 Inclusiveness fosters an atmosphere of belonging among teammates, motivating them to participate and collaborate to accomplish shared goals actively. To encourage inclusiveness within the coalition, it is critical to have members from diverse backgrounds who represent the community’s heterogeneity. For example, the obesity management alliance brings together medical and community staff, as well as academic and public wellness experts.

NHS FPX 8002 Assessment 2 Demonstrating Effective Leadership

To achieve inclusivity and collaboration, the coalition must prioritize open communication and ensure respect for diverse opinions of the team (El-Awaisi et al., 2024). Further, the team should be motivated to join and contribute, and all members should appreciate each other’s role despite their conflicts. This method promotes dignity and worth. For cultural awareness, the alliance’s team must engage with community members to gain insight into WV adults’ needs and preferences to tailor interventions to increase population involvement.

Providing linguistically and culturally relevant services and programs increases cultural knowledge, strengthening the community’s trust in the alliance. Adopting culturally appropriate interventions for obesity control improves population engagement (Marshall et al., 2021). The collaborative partners should also push for healthcare reforms that promote fairness and improve access to care resources for all obese adults. These assets include medication, transportation facilities, fitness and nutrition programs, and food gardens. For more successful interaction and collaboration, the team must foster open communication, identify priorities, and clearly define team roles. This can be accomplished through regular team sessions (El-Awaisi et al., 2024).

Literature Review to Address the Population Health Concern

The literature review on adult obesity includes significant information, which informs optimal procedures for addressing the issue. The peer-reviewed papers enable coalition members to identify the root causes of obesity among WV’s adult population to build efficient solutions. Literature reviews can assist in uncovering shortcomings in existing knowledge. By incorporating proven methods established in the literature, the coalition can boost the success of solutions to address obesity among the adult population, boosting health.

The research article by Sachs et al. (2024) is useful for coalition participants since it examines the impact of a multicomponent behavioral strategy on adult obesity management. The research focuses on various interventional elements, including weight self-regulation and nutritional and fitness counseling. Considering that poor habits and behavioral variables enhance the likelihood of adult obesity, this study is an important resource for coalition stakeholders as they develop treatments to address population issues. According to the study, behavioral interventions help people lose 5.1% to 10.2% weight. The study is pertinent to the health issue; by combining findings from many studies, this review offers information about the efficient methods for caring adult obesity. 

Second, the study by Masood and Moorthy (2023) is a review that must be regarded as essential in dealing with adult obesity because it provides a comprehensive grasp of the elements that influence obesity occurrence. The study informs the establishment of evidence-based interventions specific to these challenges by identifying non-modifiable factors such as genetics and modifiable variables such as medical condition, poor lifestyle, lack of physical activity, disturbed sleep, psychosocial strain, and socioeconomic level. The review paper is relevant because comprehending these factors is critical for the coalition to navigate efficiently comprehensive intervention development, leading to improved population health.

Conclusion 

Obesity is a critical issue in the US, particularly in WV’s adult population. Overcoming the chronic issue demands effective efforts and multimodal approaches through collaboration among interdisciplinary teams. Considering ethical principles, diversity and inclusion foster respect and ensure equal allocation of resources among the adult population to manage their condition.  The insights of the peer-reviewed articles assist the coalition in developing successful strategies for obesity prevention and management among the adult WV population. Fostering communication and teamwork among obese coalition leads to effective measures, improving population outcomes and well-being. 

References

Alkhatry, M. (2024). Understanding and managing obesity: A multidisciplinary approach. IntechOpen EBooks. https://doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.1004426

NHS FPX 8002 Assessment 2 Demonstrating Effective Leadership

AHR. (2023). Explore obesity in West Virginia. Americas Health Rankings.org. https://www.americashealthrankings.org/explore/measures/Obesity/WV

CDC. (2024). Obesity and severe obesity prevalence in adults: United States, August 2021–August 2023. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.gov. https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/products/databriefs/db508.htm

CDC. (2025). Adult obesity prevalence maps. Centers for Disease Prevention and Control.gov.. https://www.cdc.gov/obesity/data-and-statistics/adult-obesity-prevalence-maps.html#:~:text=17%20states%20and%20the%20U.S.,prevalence%20of%2040%25%20or%20greater.

Cheraghi, R., Valizadeh, L., Zamanzadeh, V., Hassankhani, H., & Jafarzadeh, A. (2023). Clarification of ethical principle of the beneficence in nursing care: An integrative review. BioMed Central Nursing, 22(1), 89. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12912-023-01246-4

El-Awaisi, A., Yakti, O. H., Elboshra, A. M., Jasim, K. H., AboAlward, A. F., Shalfawi, R. W., Awaisu, A., Rainkie, D., Al Mutawa, N., & Major, S. (2024). Facilitators and barriers to interprofessional collaboration among health professionals in primary healthcare centers in Qatar: a qualitative exploration using the “Gears” model. BioMed Central Primary Care, 25(1), 316. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12875-024-02537-8

Marshall, S., Taki, S., Laird, Y., Love, P., Wen, L. M., & Rissel, C. (2021). Cultural adaptations of obesity‐related behavioral prevention interventions in early childhood: A systematic review. Obesity Reviews, 23(4). https://doi.org/10.1111/obr.13402

Masood, B., & Moorthy, M. (2023). Causes of obesity: A review. Clinical Medicine, 23(4), 284–291. https://doi.org/10.7861/clinmed.2023-0168

Sachs, E. A., Schwartz, J. L., Bramante, C. T., Nicklas, J. M., Gudzune, K. A., & Jay, M. (2023). Obesity management in adults: A review. Journal of American Medical Association, 330(20), 2000–2000. https://doi.org/10.1001/jama.2023.19897

Sirimsi, M. M., De Loof, H., Van den Broeck, K., De Vliegher, K., Pype, P., Remmen, R., & Van Bogaert, P. (2022). Scoping review to identify strategies and interventions improving interprofessional collaboration and integration in primary care. British Medical Journal Open, 12(10), e062111. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjopen-2022-062111

NHS FPX 8002 Assessment 2 Demonstrating Effective Leadership

Spinner, J. R. (2022). An examination of the impact of social and cultural traditions contributing to overweight and obesity among black women. Journal of Primary Care & Community Health, 13. https://doi.org/10.1177/21501319221098519

United States Census Bureau. (2024). Quick facts: West Virginia. United States Census Bureau.gov. https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/WV/PST045224

Warren, J. L., & Warren, J. S. (2023). The case for understanding interdisciplinary relationships in health care. Ochsner Journal, 23(2), 94–97. https://doi.org/10.31486/toj.22.0111

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