Influence of interprofessional communication on discharge decisions in prelicensure healthcare learners

Abstract

Abstract Introduction Readiness in interprofessional practice is expected of graduating health professionals. This study examined the effectiveness of education on interprofessional communication around discharge destination decisions of healthcare learners utilizing standardized patients in an objective structured clinical examination (OSCE). Methods Occupational therapy (OT, n = 26), physical therapy (PT, n = 27), and physician assistant (PA, n = 35) learners individually assessed a standardized patient (SP) in a simulated acute care setting and chose a discharge destination from a list of options. Next, learners considered other team member perspectives, either in an interprofessional team huddle or through review of written documentation, before meeting with the SP as a team and finalizing discharge destination decisions. Learner decisions were compared to expert opinion using cross tabulation. Results Overall, learners in both intervention groups significantly improved their discharge decisions matched with expert opinion (Team Huddle, p = 0.001; Written Communication, p = 0.006) without a significant difference between the Team Huddle and Written Communication groups (p = .774). Variance was noted among disciplines with statistical significance only noted between OT learners and learners from the other professions (Team Huddle, p = 0.004; Written Communication, p = 0.016). Conclusion Interprofessional collaboration through either team huddle or written communication improves discharge decision-making with compatible effectiveness between them.