The Impact Of Collaboration Between Nursing, Medical Laboratory Services, And Public Health In Controlling Epidemic Outbreaks

Abstract

The landscape of global health security is characterized by an escalating frequency and complexity of infectious disease threats, necessitating a paradigmatic shift from reactive crisis management to a proactive, integrated defense strategy. At the nexus of this strategy lies the critical collaboration between three essential pillars of the healthcare architecture: nursing, medical laboratory services (MLS), and public health agencies. Historically, these disciplines have operated within distinct professional silos, shaped by separate evolutionary trajectories and administrative frameworks. However, the emergence of high-consequence pathogens—ranging from the H1N1 influenza pandemic and the Ebola virus disease epidemic in West Africa to the global COVID-19 crisis—has underscored that the containment of an outbreak is fundamentally a multidisciplinary endeavor. This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the role of interdisciplinary collaboration in enhancing epidemic preparedness, detection, response, and containment, utilizing an analytical and narrative framework to synthesize evidence from recent public health emergencies.