Development and pilot testing of an observational tool to assess interprofessional education in virtual communities of practice (VCoP)

Abstract

In recent years, virtual communities of practice (VCoP) have been used to bridge the knowledge and expertise gap between resourceful health centres and underserved communities. VCoP have the potential to promote learning in the Interprofessional Education (IPE) domain. There is a need to evaluate the quality and effectiveness of VCoP concerning the IPE domain. To develop and test an observational tool for assessing IPE in VCoP. An interprofessional research team created a twenty-item tool based on a literature review, and developed over multiple iterations. The Virtual Interprofessional Education (V-IPE) tool underwent testing by two trained independent observers who represented the target audience of research assistants and users of the tool. They each assessed 21 recorded sessions of three VCoPs offered in Ontario, Canada, focused on chronic pain, liver diseases, and rheumatology. Overall agreement and reliability between observers are reported for each item. The agreement and inter-rater reliability were acceptable. Agreement varied from 23.8% to 100%, and inter-rater reliability varied from −0.33 to 0.64. This tool can be applied as a quality improvement measure to monitor and improve the quality of IPE delivered in VCoPs. This novel tool can be used as a starting point for developing a more sophisticated and reliable tool to assess IPE delivered in VcoPs.