Innovative Interprofessional Education Research Articles

A study of the impact of an interprofessional education module in Vietnam on students' readiness and competencies.

The literature puts forward a range of challenges of interprofessional education (IPE) related to its planning, initiation, implementation, and especially to IPE assessment. The present study aims to map changes in students' readiness and interprofessional collaboration competence (IPCC) in implementing an innovative IPE module. Potential differences in impact related to the health education programs and IPCC scores resulting from self-, peer-, and tutor assessments will also be analysed. A pre-post design was adopted. The student's readiness for interprofessional learning was assessed using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale, and the student's IPCC score was calculated based on self-, peer-, and tutor assessments with the interprofessional collaborator assessment rubric. Students' mean post-test readiness scores and mean post-test IPCC scores were significantly higher than the total and subscales/domain pre-test scores (p<0.01). No significant within-subject differences were observed in students' readiness total or subscale scores when comparing health educational programs. However, significant differences were observed in students' mean total IPCC scores between programs (p<0.01). Significant differences in students' average IPCC scores were found when comparing self-, peer- and tutor assessment scores in six domains (p<0.01). Also, significant correlations between peer and tutor assessment scores were observed (p<0.01). The IPE module, designed and implemented to focus on patient-centred practice within a primary care context, positively impacted students' readiness and IPCC development. These results offer insights to expand the implementation of the IPE module to all health educational programs.

Breaking Down the Silos: Interprofessional Education Certificate of Honors Program

The University of New Mexico (UNM) Health Sciences, Office of Interprofessional Education designed and implemented an innovative interprofessional education (IPE) Honors program, the first in the United States, in the Summer of 2019. This program was built through a dynamic and responsive partnership with health professions students from multiple programs. The program was piloted in the 2019/2020 academic year and upon graduation in May 2020, the first twenty students were awarded a certificate of IPE Honors. The designed program addressed the barriers and challenges to IPE participation at the organizational level while facilitating creative engagement from the students. We designed the IPE Honors program to value and highlight the innovative interprofessional extracurricular and intercurricular student work. Individual program accreditation and documentation of outcome requirements are supported using a reflective learning IPE evaluation tool that captures the quality and quantity of student IPE experiences. We inventoried both intercurricular and extracurricular IPE activities and experiences. We then mapped these activities to seven categories that were correlated with the behaviors of Interprofessional Professionalism (Frost et al., 2019) and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Competencies (Barr, 1998). Through group meetings and a pilot assessment, we felt confident that students could gain sufficient experience and practice with the interprofessional behaviors to achieve the IPEC competencies. We designed the IPE Honors program to highlight, build, and assess the quality of IPE experiences across the HSC while accounting for the extracurricular student IPE experiences. This program is innovative, flexible, sustainable, and can be replicated.

Occupational Therapy &amp; Art Education: Interprofessional Collaboration for Inclusive Remote Learning

Interprofessional collaboration is considered best practice in all areas of health care and interprofessional education (IPE) activities are an essential part of pre-professional education programs. IPE activities typically occur between healthcare profession students but not between programs outside of healthcare where professionals are likely to collaborate such as occupational therapy (OT) and schoolteachers. Here we describe an innovative IPE activity between OT and Art Education students who collaborated to apply theories from each discipline to create remote asynchronous inclusive art workshops during the pandemic. Art Education majors developed the workshop curricula and OT students developed strategies to modify the activities to facilitate participation for children with disabilities. The collaboration between the students was highly beneficial to both groups as they were introduced to the objectives, modalities, and approaches of each discipline while enhancing understanding of the distinct value that each provide within the education setting, thus increasing the likelihood of developing stronger interprofessional relationships in the future. The project facilitated other essential learning including researching and applying best practices for asynchronous learning, adapting activities for specific participation or learning needs, incorporating adaptations using principles of Universal Design for Learning, and preparing family friendly resources in a remote format.

‘Not the last resort’: The impact of an interprofessional training care home initiative on students, staff, and residents

ABSTRACT This paper reports on an innovative interprofessional education (IPE) initiative conducted in three care homes across Greater Manchester in the United Kingdom (UK). Students from a variety of professions including nursing, physiotherapy, social work, podiatry, counseling, and sports rehabilitation worked collaboratively in the homes to address the residents’ individual goals. We found that care homes provided students with many opportunities for interprofessional working and learning. Through better understanding the dimensions of different perspectives and approaches, students improved their education and transformed their perceptions of aged care. Having a diverse range of professionals allowed staff to gain insight into the latest evidence-based practice and address the multiple needs of the residents more holistically. Residents gained an enriched sense of meaning and purpose in their daily life by engaging in fulfilling and meaningful activities. The complexities of undertaking an IPE initiative in this setting are also considered and we conclude by proposing important avenues for future research.

Psychosocial interprofessional perinatal education: Design and evaluation of an interprofessional learning experience to improve students’ collaboration skills in perinatal mental health

BackgroundPerinatal mental health disorders are one of the leading causes of maternal illness and suffering and care and services need to be well coordinated by an interprofessional team who are skilled in working collaboratively. AimThe aim of this paper is to describe the design and evaluation of an innovative interprofessional education initiative to increase midwives and other health professional students’ knowledge and skills in caring collaboratively for women with psychosocial issues in the perinatal period, including women experiencing domestic and family violence. MethodsThe Psychosocial Interprofessional Perinatal Education workshop was designed for midwifery, psychology, social work and medical students. It provided a simulated learning experience with case studies based on real life situations. Students undertook pre and post surveys to measure changes in students’ perceptions of interprofessional collaboration and their experiences of participating in the interprofessional simulation-based learning activity. Quantitative survey data were analysed using paired t-tests and a qualitative content analysis was undertaken on the open-ended questions in the survey. FindingsComparison of pre and post surveys found students from all disciplines reported feeling more confident working interprofessionally following the workshop. The following categories were generated from analysis of the open ended survey data: Greater understanding of each others’ roles; Recognising benefits of interprofessional collaboration; Building on sense of professional identity; Respecting each other and creating a level playing field; and Filling a pedagogical gap. ConclusionThrough this innovative, simulated interprofessional education workshop students developed skills essential for future collaborative practice to support women and families experiencing psychosocial distress.

Barreiras à implementação da educação interprofissional: uma análise do Programa de Educação pelo Trabalho para a Saúde (PET-Saúde)

Abstract This study analyzes the barriers undergraduate health courses participating in the Educação pelo Trabalho para a Saúde (PET-Saúde), in Rio de Janeiro, face to implement interprofessional education. An exploratory and qualitative case study was conducted with 32 participants from PET-Saúde, a program that promotes curricular changes in undergraduate health courses. Data were collected in 2020 by means of individual interviews. Thematic analysis of the data identified sociopolitical, institutional, and relational barriers. Degradation of the health system and the regional violence hindering healthcare activities were the main sociopolitical barriers. In turn, institutional barriers included curriculum rigidity, university administrator turnover, and lack of evaluation methods for innovative interprofessional education. As for relational barriers, professional silos hindering collaborative efforts, top-down power hierarchies resistant to feedback, and unsatisfactory communications among stakeholders were the main complaints. Overcoming these barriers requires intersectoral public policies, greater integration among professionals, healthcare, and education systems, and recognizing that interprofessional education can improve public health, reduce healthcare costs, and ensure professional satisfaction and work safety.

An innovative interprofessional education simulation for athletic training and prelicensure nursing students: Development, implementation, and student perspectives.

The purpose of this article is to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a Simulation Interprofessional Education (Sim-IPE) activity for healthcare students from different disciplines (athletic training [AT] and nursing). The objective for the Sim-IPE activity was to engage ATand prelicensure nursing students in a realistic healthcare scenario to enhance knowledge about one another's profession, develop interprofessional skills, collaborate with one another, and communicate effectively as a team as they performed care. This mixed methods study employed a one-time posttest design for a convenience sample of AT and prelicensure nursing students following a simulation intervention. Students completed the Student Perceptions of Interprofessional Clinical Education-Revised (SPICE-R)survey and answered open-ended response questions. Thirteen students (N = 13) from Cohort 1 and 12students (N = 12) from Cohort 2 completed the SPICE-R survey. Most students strongly agreed/agreed for each of the SPICE-R survey questions. Qualitative findings indicated the students positively perceived the Sim-IPE activity as it helped them discover the value of interprofessional patient care. The quantitative findings indicated that the students found the Sim-IPE an effective learning methodology to achieve the objectives while the qualitative findings gave further insight into the students' perceptions of interprofessional teamwork and the value of the prebrief session conducted before the simulation. The findings will inform future Sim-IPE activities involving additional groups of healthcare students.

A Locally Developed Pilot Writers’ Workshop Encourages Scholarly Dissemination of Interprofessional Education Projects

INTRODUCTION The interprofessional education (IPE) community has long recognized that scholarly output related to program/study design, outcomes, and evaluation is needed to strengthen the IPE evidence base. We developed, implemented, and evaluated a university-wide interprofessional writers’ workshop to address this need.METHODS Awardees of the Linking Interprofessional Networks for Collaboration (LINC) Seed Grant Program, which provides financial support for innovative IPE projects at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio, participated in a one-month writers’ workshop that included asynchronous online modules and live programming exploring IPE publication opportunities. A qualitative descriptive approach was used to analyze free-text entries from module surveys and transcripts of discussions between workshop participants (n=10) and faculty (n=6) during live programming to identify themes and sentiment. RESULTS Four main themes emerged: workshop design, rationale for participation, making scholarly writing a habit, and current trends in the IPE literature. Barriers to IPE research and barriers to writing for publication had the highest proportion of codes associated with negative sentiment; participating in IPE and lessons learned from workshop participation had the highest proportion of codes associated with positive sentiment. DISCUSSION The inaugural LINC Writers’ Workshop pilot was perceived as a helpful first step for encouraging IPE project teams to publish their designs, findings, and lessons learned in peer-reviewed journals, and for promoting an extended network of collaborators in IPE scholarship. Findings will be used to improve future iterations of the workshop, strengthen IPE project conceptualization and design, and build a community of local authors who can support and hold one another accountable to their publication goals.

Impact of a Student-teach-student Model for IPE Between Pharmacists and Dermatologists on Student Knowledge and Attitude

Introduction: The effective delivery of patient care is a complex venture, often requiring efficient collaboration among varied healthcare professions. Not surprisingly, research continues to indicate collaboration between these diverse professionals can be challenging. Early exposure of health professions students to interprofessional education (IPE) offers a promising way to improve this collaboration and, in turn, improve patient care and service delivery. Objectives: This study examines the impact of an innovative IPE cocurricular event on knowledge, understanding, and attitudes, regarding future healthcare delivery between medical and pharmacy students. Method: Students developed and conducted an IPE cocurricular event involving medical students of a dermatology-interest club, and pharmacy students of a compounding-interest club. Medical students introduced a patient case, delivered in a standardized-patient format. This was followed by a pharmacy student presentation representing compounding the prescriptions needed for the patient case and writing accurate prescriptions. Following both presentations, students from each program were paired. Each interprofessional pair then communicated and compounded two medications for the case, working collaboratively. Pre- and post-questionnaires were designed with rating scales and open-ended questions for data collection. Results: Both parametric and nonparametric tests revealed significant differences between the pretests and posttests. There was no significant difference in responding between the groups. Inspection of the open-ended questions revealed changes in attitudes regarding collaboration and learning. Conclusions: This study found students of both professions reported significant improvements in their level of knowledge, understanding, and interest in interprofessional collaboration. The open-ended questions revealed both groups of students began the event with different expectations regarding cooperation and interprofessional activities but left the session with very similar perspectives. By including similar IPE activities in early healthcare education, medical students will gain an understanding of the knowledge, skills, and services that a compounding pharmacist can offer in personalized patient care, and pharmacy students will acquire clinical reasoning based on patient presentations. Both factors promote collaboration between professions and ultimately show promise in improving outcomes in patient care.

Improving Patients' Early Mobility Through Innovative Interprofessional Education Using Educational Neuroscience Theory.

Ambulation is one of the most frequently reported components of unfinished nursing care, yet early mobilization can prevent patient deconditioning. This project was designed as an interprofessional mobility training program by using educational neuroscience theory to engage learners in appreciating the need for early ambulation and change behaviors. This article reviews one initiative that incorporated neuroscience and learning science in the teaching methodologies to achieve high rates of successful educational outcomes. [J Contin Educ Nurs. 2021;52(8):362-366.].

Creation of an Online Interprofessional Education Module for Executive Public Health Students

Responding to the 2016 Council on Education for Public Health foundational competency requirement that students demonstrate the ability to “perform effectively in interprofessional teams,” the distance-based executive master’s program at Emory University developed an innovative interprofessional education (IPE) experience for geographically dispersed mid-career professionals. Because executive students are mid-career professionals from a variety of disciplines, they participated in this experience representing their professional roles and titles. IPE student groups represented at least three distinct disciplines. The executive program created a four-part online experience consisting of (1) a self-paced didactic module, (2) a synchronous case study group discussion, (3) small (three to five students) group development of a video solution to the case study, and (4) peer review of other groups’ case study solutions. The first-year pilot program was evaluated via standard online course evaluations and a separate evaluation survey sent immediately after completion of the complete experience. Of those responding to the standard course evaluation, 61.1% reported that they learned a great deal in the course and, of those responding to the immediate evaluation survey, 87.5% reported being very satisfied or satisfied with the experience. During the second iteration of the program, an additional survey, the Nebraska Inter-Professional Education Attitudes Survey identified improvement on 9 out of 19 attitudes toward interprofessional education. Overall, this IPE experience offered a unique way to employ the strengths of executive students and provide a meaningful IPE encounter for students in geographically diverse locations.

A Breath of Fresh Air: Social Work IPE With People Experiencing Homelessness

ABSTRACT To meet the grand challenge of ending homelessness, social work education programs must prepare students to effectively collaborate with other health-related disciplines. This article presents social work and nursing student perceptions of an innovative interprofessional education activity conducted at a day shelter serving people experiencing homelessness. Students indicate they learned about and from each other, potentially improving future interprofessional collaboration. They also describe learning with each other as they interacted with people experiencing homelessness, developing a new understanding of this persistent social problem and an increased sensitivity toward individuals experiencing homelessness. Students also identify opportunities to improve the activity. Based on these positive results, implications for the continued use of interprofessional activities that include people experiencing homelessness are discussed.

Design Thinking: An Approach to Innovative Interprofessional Education.

Design Thinking: An Approach to Innovative Interprofessional Education.

Perinatal/neonatal palliative care: Effecting improved knowledge and multi-professional practice of midwifery and children's nursing students through an inter-professional education initiative

This paper presents a study that examines the potential value of a new and innovative inter-professional education (IPE) experience for final year midwifery and children's nursing students focused on improving awareness of end-of-life care for infants in conjunction with the support of their families. The study uses an action research approach to examine midwifery and children's nursing student experiences of an IPE initiative in developing knowledge regarding perinatal/neonatal palliative care.The setting is a Higher Education Institute in the South of England that included final year midwifery students (n = 39) and children's nursing students (n = 34) taking part in the study. Qualitative and quantitative data indicated that the IPE intervention had proven worth in developing knowledge and confidence in the students as both student groupings felt they lacked knowledge and confidence about perinatal/neonatal palliative care before attending the study day.Students felt that learning with, from and about the other profession represented was important in generating their knowledge. Educators should explore innovative ways to enable the further development of the fledgling speciality of perinatal/neonatal palliative care through education on an interprofessional platform.

Case Studies of Interprofessional Education Initiatives From Five Countries.

Although teamwork and interprofessional collaboration are critical to patient safety, nursing, medical, and allied health graduates often feel ill-prepared to confidently communicate and collaborate with other team members. While interprofessional education (IPE) has been advocated as a way of addressing this issue, there are multiple barriers to its systematic and sustained integration in undergraduate healthcare programs. Despite these challenges, examples of effective IPE initiatives have emerged. This article profiles seven case studies of innovative interprofessional education activities that have been successfully implemented across five countries, for a variety of learners, using different delivery modalities, and with evaluation results attesting to their success. The case studies demonstrate innovative ideas that have the potential to overcome some of the barriers to IPE through the use of creative and targeted approaches. This article provides a wealth of ideas for the successful design and implementation of IPE initiatives and will be of benefit to educators wishing to expand their repertoire of teaching approaches. A body of research attests to the relationship between interprofessional communication, teamwork, and patient outcomes. IPE is imperative for facilitating the development of nursing graduates' communication and teamwork skills; however, innovative approaches are needed to overcome the perceived and actual impediments to its implementation.

The Patient Centered Medical Home and medical school education: An innovative interprofessional education model

The Patient Centered Medical Home (PCMH) emphasizes Interprofessional Practice (IPP) and is quickly becoming the standard model of care within primary care medicine. As the landscape of primary care medicine changes toward this comprehensive and patient-focused model, medical education will need to follow suit and incorporate the theoretical, clinical, and practical aspects of IPP. One way to accomplish this is by utilizing interprofessional education within the medical education curriculum. This article highlights an innovative family medicine clerkship experience at Eastern Virginia Medical School (EVMS) that utilizes interprofessional education to teach the importance of collaboration with other professions and its impact on quality of care. Based in a simulated PCMH, third year medical students must demonstrate the knowledge and skills of working in a primary care setting from a biopsychosocial theoretical model. Students are expected to demonstrate their ability to assess, diagnose, and communicate effectively and empathetically with a standardized patient and are assessed by both medical faculty and behavioral clinicians. Details of the clerkship experience are provided as well as student reflections of their interprofessional experience and a discussion of future directions.

Tracing the prescription journey: a qualitative evaluation of an interprofessional simulation-based learning activity

BackgroundIn many countries across the world, the majority of prescribing occurs within the community setting. Close collaboration between general practitioners (GPs) and pharmacists is required to ensure effective therapeutic treatment of patients, whilst minimising prescribing and dispensing errors. Despite the need to work collaboratively, medical and pharmacy training is often unilateral. Interprofessional education (IPE) and simulation-based education (SBE) are teaching approaches widely used by healthcare professionals to foster collaborative practice. At Queen’s University Belfast (QUB), an innovative IPE activity was developed for medical and pharmacy undergraduate students that aimed to develop a greater understanding of their roles and duties in community prescribing and dispensing. This study set out to evaluate the impact of such a SBE activity on students’ attitudes towards collaborative practice in prescribing and dispensing medication in the community.MethodsInterprofessional groups of year 3 pharmacy (n = 10) and year 4 medical (n = 9) students took part in a SBE activity. This focused on the IPE team clinically assessing, diagnosing, writing prescriptions, dispensing medication(s) and counselling a simulated patient (in a simulated practice and pharmacy setting). Using a questioning guide, four focus groups of medical and pharmacy students were used to evaluate their attitudes towards the simulated IPE activity. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed and analysed iteratively using thematic analysis.ResultsFour main themes emerged from the analysis: (1) IPE simulation activity: creating a broader learning experience; (2) patient-centred practice: a shared understanding; (3) professional skills: explored and shared; and (4) professional roles: a journey of discovery, respect and stereotypes.ConclusionsStudents broadened their knowledge of each other’s expertise in skills and clinical roles whilst working together. Furthermore, students valued the opportunity to strengthen cooperation with their future colleagues with the shared goal of improving patient-centred care.

An innovative interprofessional education program for university medical, nursing, and social work students learning in teams during sessions and visits with geriatric mentors

Abstract This curricular resource describes a university interprofessional education program involving small teams composed of one first year medical student, one to two first year masters of social work students, and one to two traditional or accelerated nursing students. Case discussions framed by IPE competencies take place in a facility on campus with activities to be used with senior volunteer mentors. The main objective of using the Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice 2011 is because students have limited knowledge of IPE collaborative practice and little exposure to geriatric populations. The format includes a blended learning environment to work in teams and debriefing before and after sessions and visits. Students are given pretest and posttest surveys and short reflective writing assignments throughout and at the end of the program. A majority of the students agree to strongly agree that knowledge of IPE increased, teamwork strengthened, and attitude toward seniors changed.

‘We might as well be speaking different languages’: an innovative interprofessional education tool to teach and assess communication skills critical to patient safety

IntroductionAll practicing health professionals must be able to communicate effectively with their colleagues around the care of patients. Better communication between health professionals not only improves patient outcomes, but also...

A pilot study to test the effectiveness of an innovative interprofessional education assessment strategy

The goals of this quasi-experimental pilot study were to test an assessment tool designed to evaluate students' teamwork skills, and to assess the effectiveness of an interprofessional education (IPE) course. Participants were health professional students (physical therapy, pharmacy, dental and osteopathic medicine), 24 of whom were second-year students who had previously taken part in an IPE course (experimental group), and 22 of whom were third years that had not (control group). Students interacted with a standardized patient and her son during an asynchronous Team Objective Structured Clinical Exam (TOSCE), after which they were scored on their teamwork skills using newly designed teamwork rating scales. Cronbach Alpha calculations suggest that the rating scales are reliable when rater scores are aggregated (0.81). Pearson coefficient calculations determined that teamwork scores of live raters and video raters were significantly correlated (p < 0.0001) suggesting good consistency across these raters, and the experimental group performed significantly better (p = 0.0003) than the control group suggesting that the IPE curriculum is successfully equipping students with teamwork skills. The results of this study contribute to the much needed IPE assessment literature, and suggest that teamwork skills can be taught and effectively assessed using this new rating scale.