Outcomes of a PharmD-Led Palliative Care Interprofessional Team Learning Model (QI626)

Abstract

•Describe an interprofessional educational learning experience among physician hospice fellows and postgraduate year two (PGY2) pain management and palliative care pharmacy residents.•Explain tools utilized to evaluate the effectiveness of interprofessional learning. An interprofessional palliative care training model can increase the number of palliative care practitioners and improve palliative care team collaboration. The PGY2 pain management and palliative care (PMPC) pharmacy residency director collaborated with a hospice fellowship director to create an interprofessional outpatient palliative care direct patient care teaching clinic. The primary objective was to implement and evaluate learning outcomes of an interprofessional palliative care learning experience between medical fellows and PGY2 pharmacy residents. The interprofessional learners were two palliative care physician fellows and one PGY2 PMPC pharmacy resident per year. The core learning curriculum begins with self-directed completion of Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Oncology Palliative Care Education (iCOPE) modules, various preceptor-led didactic educational sessions, StrengthsFinder 2.0 assessment and team dysfunction didactic was completed at orientation to develop trust and prepare learners for team based-care. At baseline and at conclusion of the experience, quantitative evaluation and qualitative feedback were obtained from learners to assess the impact of the curriculum on palliative care knowledge and readiness for interprofessional practice. The clinical setting was an outpatient palliative care clinic a half-day per week, where the team developed interprofessional care plans, shared documentation, and resolved common palliative care patient issues. From July 2017 to June 2019, six female learners completed the 12-month interprofessional learning experience. Physician learners on average had higher exposure to interprofessional learning in comparison to pharmacists at baseline. Pharmacists' and physicians' scores for the end-of-life caregiver survey improved from 1.86 to 3.45 and from 2.84 to 3.80, respectively. Survey responses for the SEIEL and interprofessional socialization and valuing scale improved from baseline for pharmacists and physician fellows. The combination of PGY2 PMPC resident pharmacists and physician fellows demonstrated an objective increase in palliative care interprofessional learning after a longitudinal year-long palliative care curriculum.