Challenges Of Interprofessional Education Research Articles

Perceptions towards Inter-Professional Education (IPE) among Pre-Registration Health Professional Students in Sri Lanka

Introduction of Inter-Professional Education (IPE) into healthcare professions’ curricula has become an important aim globally. Health professional students experience informal interprofessional learning opportunities during their clinical training years. Investigating the attitudes toward IPE and the factors that affect these attitudes among pre-registration students in the different health professions will illuminate the needs and challenges of IPE in Sri Lanka. A cross sectional study was conducted with the students from 8 health professional groups (Medicine, Physiotherapy, Nursing Diploma/ Degree, Medical Laboratory Science (MLS), Pharmacy, Audiology, Speech and Language Therapy) at different health educational institutions. A total of 686 students were invited to complete the self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire mainly consists of the Readiness for Inter-Professional Learning Scale (RIPLS). The RIPLS data was analyzed using factor analysis, descriptive statistics, t-test and ANOVA. The response rate for the survey was 83%. Only 18.9% of the students reported previous IPE experiences. We sought a three-factor solution but the analysis highlighted that a single factor predominates. According to the 14 items which loaded to this factor, it was named as ‘value of teamwork’. The findings suggest that students’ attitudes towards IPE are generally positive. The variable factor loading than the original validation suggests that students may need more clarity on the aim of IPE. This study suggests some focused approaches for IPE in Sri Lanka. Promoting the importance of interprofessional learning through educational methods might assist to improve the attitudes toward IPE.

76 Benefits and Challenges of Inter-Professional Education Within the Emergency Department <i>in situ</i> Simulation

A comprehensive literature review was performed to critically evaluate the benefits and challenges of inter-professional education (IPE) in the Emergency Department (ED) and within A literature review was carried out for manuscripts within my institution’s high-quality online library, as part of a post-graduate assignment. Search terms included keywords: ‘interprofessional education’, ‘interprofessional teams’, ‘simulation’, ‘emergency medicine’, and ‘healthcare’. A total of 23 peer-reviewed manuscripts were identified spanning a publication range of 22 years (1998 to 2020). Analysis of the literature resulted in the identification of 7 subject headings as most relevant to IPE. These subject headings were ‘patient safety’, ‘patient flow’, ‘learning outcomes’, ‘professional identities’, ‘organization’, ‘technology enhanced learning’ and ‘faculty’.EDs are demanding IPE occurs frequently in

Governance options for effective interprofessional education: Exposing the gap between education and healthcare services

Context The increase in interprofessional models of collaborative practice and identification of health services as interprofessional organisations, sits somewhat awkwardly with traditional governance systems for both health services and educational institutions. Whereas health services have a primary focus on assuring competence and safety for health care practice, educational institutions have a primary focus on assuring academic standards within specific qualifications. Bridging the gap between these two systems with a workable option has proven challenging, especially in relation to interprofessional education (IPE). Objectives Given the need to ensure ‘work ready’ graduates within a more interprofessional and collaborative workforce, it is important to review the quality assurance governance models that are in place and to consider which of these existing governance systems, if either, is the more appropriate model for enabling and supporting IPE. Methods This paper describes current issues in relation to governance for quality assurance, summarises the current state of research in the field and discusses potential governance options moving forward. Conclusion Given that existing governance models are not meeting the challenges of IPE, there is a need to achieve greater alignment between the academic and health service governing systems.

How interprofessional teams of students mobilized collaborative practice competencies and the patient partnership approach in a hybrid IPE course

ABSTRACT To develop collaborative competencies of future health and social services professionals, the Université de Montréal (UdeM) offers interprofessional education (IPE) in partnership with patients. To meet the challenges of IPE, UdeM turned to digital tools to enable interprofessional teams of students to collaborate online and face-to-face. The collaborative flipped classroom for IPE with patient partnership is the conceptual framework for the pedagogical method used for this study. It is based on: 1) a competency framework and 2) collaborative learning concept and dimensions. The study aimed to: 1) demonstrate how interprofessional teams of students mobilize framework competencies and care approaches during online and face-to-face collaborative learning activities; and 2) analyze how students collaborate during a hybrid IPE course using a patient partnership approach. Using a qualitative methodology, the contents of the online collaborative journals (OCJs) of 12 interprofessional student teams were analyzed, along with the individual comments (n = 994) of IPE course learners collected through the Interprofessional Team Collaboration questionnaire (n = 321). The results suggest that the course under study enabled teams to collaborate online and face-to-face throughout the term, and indicate that students were better prepared to adopt a patient partnership approach.

Shifting the Paradigm for Interprofessional Healthcare Education: Linking Academia and Health Care Systems

Changes in practice and the health care delivery system must be linked to health care education reform. Stimulated by the 2013 Affordable Care Act, the Josiah Macy, Jr. Foundation, published their conference recommendations to support the fact that rapid health care delivery redesign is not matching the pace of health professional education reform. Interprofessional education (IPE) is defined as a planned experience for learners for more than one discipline that includes direct instruction (eg. didactics, seminars, workshops) and/or a clinical experience in interprofessional care. IPE is a necessary step for health care professional students to prepare to practice in an Interprofesssional Collaborative Practice (IPCP) model. The 2011 IPCP expert panel report recommends that IPE training should occur in four core competencies that include 1) values and ethics; 2) roles/responsibilities; 3) interprofessional communication and 4) teams and teamwork. Two additional domains include patient/client/family/communitycentered care and interprofessional conflict resolution, a subset of interprofessional communication. This paper offers commentary/perspective on major challenges in IPE that include uniformity of health care professions in their accreditation standards, challenges posed by the diversity of student health professional training, and the need for faculty development in program implementation. Although there are examples of mature and well-defined IPE programs across the country, the University of Hawaii’s early experience most likely reflects the status of most programs across the country. Description of an interprofessional work group tasked with developing a strategic plan and an early pilot project that includes key challenges of distance and geography are superficially described. A partnership between academia, two large health systems and the largest Blue Cross/Blue Shield in Hawai’i provide opportunity for collaboration and linking health care reform synchronously with education advances in IPE.

Flying blind: The experience of online interprofessional facilitation

The role of the facilitator is known to be important in fostering productive interprofessional education (IPE) in the face-to-face (F2F) environment. Online learning can help surmount some of the logistical challenges in IPE by bringing together diverse professionals in multiple geographical locations. Best practices in F2F IPE facilitation are beginning to emerge, but there is scant literature examining IPE facilitation online. What little research exists has focused on the asynchronous environment and suggests that the skill sets of online and F2F facilitators have considerable overlap, but there are further demands in the online setting. This qualitative study sought to examine online synchronous IPE facilitation through the self-reported experiences of seven trained facilitators during a 12-week online course. Data collected through focus groups and targeted interviews were analyzed by the research team using constant comparison techniques. Four major themes were revealed: technology as a dynamic force, reduction in non-verbal cues, evolution of the online IPE group process over time and the importance of co-facilitation. The foundations of IPE facilitation were seen to carry over to the online setting. This study has implications for the training of IPE facilitators and for the design of online IPE learning experiences.

Interprofessional education internships in schools: Jump starting change

Placing our practicum students into an interprofessional education (IPE) practicum without prior course work is an unorthodox idea, however, it was discovered that the road to IPE success is not along a single pathway. This multi-case study explores the experience of seven cohorts of pre-service professionals from the faculties of Education, Nursing, Justice Studies, Kinesiology and Health Studies and Social Work who engaged in a 14-week, full-time interprofessional internship in inner-city schools. Findings suggest that this IPE practicum provided a forum for students to develop sophisticated communication skills and more fully respect the scope and breadth of each other's practice while working towards improving the quality of care for children through interprofessional collaboration. The discussion raises issues related to: the unique challenges of IPE in community-based settings, where lack of mentoring and issues related to “authenticity” emerge; “othering” and the ways in which discourse re-inscribes racist ways of knowing; and the value of co-constructed learning and the need to respond to emerging needs in context rather than in a linear, sequential process. Over two years, it was discovered that a seemingly backward approach to IPE moved our agenda forward in directions we had not anticipated.

Making Interprofessional Education Work: The Strategic Roles of the Academy

Faculties (i.e., schools) of medicine along with their sister health discipline faculties can be important organizational vehicles to promote, cultivate, and direct interprofessional education (IPE). The authors present information they gathered in 2007 about five Canadian IPE programs to identify key factors facilitating transformational change within institutional settings toward successful IPE, including (1) how successful programs start, (2) the ways successful programs influence academia to bias toward change, and (3) the ways academia supports and perpetuates the success of programs. Initially, they examine evidence regarding key factors that facilitate IPE implementation, which include (1) common vision, values, and goal sharing, (2) opportunities for collaborative work in practice and learning, (3) professional development of faculty members, (4) individuals who are champions of IPE in practice and in organizational leadership, and (5) attention to sustainability. Subsequently, they review literature-based insights regarding barriers and challenges in IPE that must be addressed for success, including barriers and challenges (1) between professional practices, (2) between academia and the professions, and (3) between individuals and faculty members; they also discuss the social context of the participants and institutions. The authors conclude by recommending what is needed for institutions to entrench IPE into core education at three levels: micro (what individuals in the faculty can do); meso (what a faculty can promote); and macro (how academic institutions can exert its influence in the health education and practice system).

Promoting interprofessional education in health sector within the European Interprofessional Education Network

According to a common definition, interprofessional education (IPE) is described as “occasions when two or more professions learn from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care”. The Leonardo project under the name European Interprofessional Education Network (EIPEN) in health and social care, has been dealing with the challenges of interprofessional education. The EIPEN project tries to develop a transnational network of universities and employers in the six participating countries and at the same time to promote good practices in interprofessional learning and teaching in health and social care. IPE provides opportunities for students and practitioners to learn with, from and about each other during qualifying and post-qualifying training and in their practice. IPE in health and social care includes the education and training of practitioners in human and animal medicine, dentistry, nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, pharmacy and all other health professions including public and environmental health and health promotion, and social work. The outcomes of the EIPEN Project will provide means, material and guidelines for the enhancement of professional education in the multi-disciplinary field of Health Informatics. The methodology on the development of the Greek Interprofessional Network was based on a series of workshops aiming to document the educational process in healthcare institutes and universities followed by the assessment of the needs for the development of an interprofessional environment. The outcomes will provide means, material and guidelines for the enhancement of professional education in the multi-disciplinary field of Health Informatics.