Interdisciplinary Professional Education Research Articles

Knowledge of Hearing Loss among University Students Pursuing Careers in Health Care.

Albeit limited, research suggests that students pursuing careers in health care receive limited training on the provision of services for people with hearing loss. As the incidence of hearing loss continues to increase among Americans, it is critical that medical professionals understand how hearing loss among patients may affect the manner in which they can provide services most effectively. The aim of this project is to assess the amount of experience and confidence that preprofessional health-care students at one university obtain during the course of their training and whether these students would be interested in additional information related to hearing health. Preprofessional health-care students in terminal degree programs at one university completed a survey regarding the provision of services for individuals with hearing loss. Students were asked to quantify their prior training on topics related to hearing loss, report their perceptions of the benefits and barriers to screening hearing, and report their self-efficacy in providing services for individuals with hearing loss. Additional survey items investigated students' interest in receiving further training on these topics. Participants (n = 95; 16.2% response rate) were students at a mid-sized, Midwestern university who were pursuing the following terminal degrees: medicine, physician assistant, nursing, pharmacy, physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language pathology, and respiratory therapy (bachelor's degree in respiratory care). Participants were selected based on membership in an interdisciplinary education training program. All students in this program received an invitation to participate in the study. Of the participants, 68 (71.6%) were Caucasian and 86 (90.5%) were female. A 28-item online survey on various topics related to hearing loss was used to document student responses. All students enrolled in a university's interdisciplinary professional education course (n = 586) received an online link to the survey via an initial email, which contained a brief introduction to the study, the assurance of response anonymity, and a statement regarding implied consent. A second email was sent to students, which reminded participants of the request to complete the survey. Overall, 60% of participants reported an interest in receiving additional information on hearing health and 66.3% of respondents indicated that they wished to receive training via an in-service or internet workshop facilitated by their university program. Most of the participants reported that they had not received training and did not feel confident identifying the signs and symptoms of hearing loss and making an appropriate referral, which led to the request for additional information. The results of this study suggest that preprofessional health-care students have an interest in receiving additional education on various topics related to hearing loss including a better understanding of how hearing loss impacts the quality of life in affected individuals. These findings provide an incentive to provide additional training related to hearing loss identification and management for preprofessional health-care students to foster increased competency and improved patient care.

«Інтегрована медицина та стоматологія» – міждисциплінарна професійна освіта

«Інтегрована медицина та стоматологія» – міждисциплінарна професійна освіта

Dealing with the learning needs of child welfare social and health care workers: an interdisciplinary approach to blended learning with part time students

ABSTRACTThis paper describes and critically evaluates a new interdisciplinary MSc in Child Welfare and Protection designed in Ireland for national and international post-qualified practitioners. It begins with a review of literature and policy and practice contexts where considerable changes to the delivery of child care services, as well as processes of monitoring need and risk, have occurred in the last decade. The next section of the paper discusses a range of perspectives on the strengths and limitations of blended learning approaches and how they can be used in interdisciplinary professional education. The second half of the paper focuses on the design and delivery of the program that was managed by academics from social work, radiography and nursing. Included in the paper are details of curriculum content, pedagogic methodologies, assessment and program management. The authors discuss opportunities and obstacles in delivering the program, including the careful use of resources and technological support, interdisciplinary debates and institutional commitments. The paper appeals to a form of blended learning that supports student learning, not just through new forms of technology, but by demonstrating that these can be mixed with traditional types of learning and teaching. In doing so it is argued that professionals can develop important, appropriate skills, knowledge and values.

Patient Centered Care for Persons with HIV Disease: Protocol Review for CASA Study (Care and Support Access) Early in Chronic Disease Management

Background: In the US, more than 1.2 million adults are living with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV); gay and bisexual men account for 82% of new diagnoses annually. Young men of color account for 67% of this total. Despite advances in disease control, lack of retention in care itself remains a barrier and how outpatient staff members impact this has not been investigated. The palliative approach is patient-centered care targeting relief of suffering and quality of life. This paper describes the original protocol for the Care and Support Access Study (CASA) where outpatient HIV staff members are challenged to improve outcomes for young men who have sex with men (yMSM) by integrating the palliative approach early (ePA) with HIV care delivery. Methods: The hypothesis is that ePA can favorably impact outcomes for yMSM in one HIV clinic compared with treatment as usual (TAU) at a second clinic. In the era of HIVdisease control, we use a quasi-experimental design with mixed methods to compare patient-level outcomes at 2 HIV clinics. The intervention fosters incorporation of the ePA with care provision using didactic and iterative education. We survey HIV staff members with regard to stress of care-giving. Qualitative interviews will highlight impact of the experience. Objectives: This paper reviews the aims of the study including: 1) compare outcomes of yMSM receiving care from staff using the ePA to those receiving TAU; 2) compare work-related staff stress at a clinic receiving the ePA with staff providing standard HIV outpatient care; and 3) refine, deliver and determine the acceptability and applicability of interdisciplinary professional education to deliver the ePA in HIV management. Discussion: We will measure the impact of the ePA on care delivery relative to patientcentered benefits. Lessons learned can contribute to a model for working with diverse patients facing challenging life transitions.

Interdisciplinary professional education

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to provide a rationale for developing interprofessional competencies among graduates from professional and graduate programs, so that they are well prepared to participate in local, national and global social change strategies.Design/methodology/approach– After reviewing the literature on strategic social change initiatives the authors briefly describe two such initiatives: corporate social responsibility initiatives and social entrepreneurial ventures. After reviewing the interprofessional literature from various disciplines and professions, the authors categorized them into “competencies,” “rationale,” “conceptual framework,” “principles” and “challenges.” An examination of exemplar pedagogy from this body of literature suggests ways to prepare students to lead and actively participate in innovative, collaborative social change initiatives.Findings– Interdisciplinary competencies include teamwork, communication, contextual understanding, negotiation, critical thinking, leadership, openness and adaptability. Interprofessional educational models are difficult to implement, however, ethical responsibility of educators to prepare students for complex realities trumps the challenges.Practical implications– Interprofessional educational experiences can enable students to engage in generative and transformational learning which can later facilitate in creation of innovative solutions for society's recalcitrant physical, social and environmental issues.Originality/value– Based on the system's perspective, the paper provides guidelines and strategies for implementing interprofessional pedagogical initiative.

Mocking the MOOCs

MOOC is one of the new terms that occupy many higher learning institutions these days. Rectors, Presidents or Vice-Chancellors, leaders of higher education in general, are all of a sudden all set for the target: we also want to provide courses for the “MOOC”. The conservative Norwegian newspaper “Aftenposten” claimed recently that the MOOCs will revolutionize higher education, and will alter “the ways we learn” in fundamental ways. The Norwegian Ministry of Education has established an expert group to monitor the development of MOOCs and the consequences for national higher education systems. The reactions sway between exhilaration and “moral panic”. Many positive reactions reflect what Thomas Alva Edison hoped for a century ago, by predicting that learning was now liberated from the institutions and offered entirely via film and radio. The moral panic is a sentiment held by those who think that higher education institutions also have an obligation to maintain national cultures of science and humanities. Leaving teaching to MIT, Open University or whoever wants to claim the turf of teaching a topic, is a challenge to the established higher education policies. The global market of science, communication, publishing and library service is already vastly dominated by the English speaking academia.The MOOCs are so far predominantly a phenomenon from this cultural area, and will add to the cultural dominance that is already so strong. In this respect I subscribe to a moral panic. On the other hand one might ask, what is truly new to the “MOOC”? Not much, in my view, except a different way of organizing, financing and marketing content and processes which are as old as correspondence schools. The technological wrapping is redesigned and offered in an importantly different context: “open access”. This tantalizing concept clouds the fact that teaching in higher education is situated in local cultural contexts, and is, as always, problematic to recontextualize.The first article in this issue is titled “From Classroom to Digital Arena in Seeking Higher-level Learning: Student Experience” and is written by dr. Mark Brown of The Department of Communication, Culture and Languages, BI Norwegian Business School in Oslo. In the article he acknowledges the vast influences distance-learning has had on the area of introducing digital technologies in higher education. The article reports some results from a teaching project in which they moved a mid-level learning process out of the classroom and into a digital learning environment in order to free up teaching time for higher-level learning. The findings demonstrate that students respond very positively to such reflective learning opportunities.In the paper “Challenges with social software for collaboration: Two case studies from teacher training” a collective of authors from the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Eastern Finland, Teemu Valtonen, Sari Havo-Nuutinen, Patrick Dillon, Sini Kontkanen, Mikko Vesisenaho and Susanne Pöntinen offer us insights into which challenges with collaborative learning one meets when using social software. It reports two case studies conducted in a teacher training department. Although the case studies were concerned with providing teacher students with inspiring and motivating experiences of using ICT in pedagogically meaningful ways, the research design was set up so that challenges could be identified and investigated. It turned out that the presumed added value of interaction and collaboration was poorly recognised.In the last article, Ragnhild Nilsen and Line Lundvoll Nilsen, of The University of Tromsø, write about their project on “Interdisciplinary professional education (IPE)”. The title, “Interprofessional Participation and Reflection in a Digital Network” introduces us to how teaching with digital tools allows collaborative learning to take place. Their methods supported collective reflection and increased professional understanding. The digital network allowed students from different health science programmes to draw on each other’s knowledge and expertise. The authors suggest that their findings are relevant for the development of reflection and professional understanding among health science students, as they show how students discuss and seek solutions to complex challenges in the practice.

Interprofessional Participation and Reflection in a Digital Network

Interdisciplinary professional education (IPE) contributes to the formation of effective collaboration in the field of practice. Education needs to be organised so that health science students can learn with, from, and about each other. This article explores how web-based collaboration contributes to this, by describing how it promotes reflection and professional understanding among health science students. Our data analysis is based on focus group interviews and online student discussions. The findings show that the flexibility of digital network, which represents both collaboration triggered by videos and online communication, is important for the students: they develop their argumentation together in reflective tranquillity. It is important to practise reflection since a choice of actions is an integral part of healthcare work, work which depends upon judgement exercised by the individual healthcare worker. The digital network allows students from different health science programmes to draw on each other’s knowledge and expertise. The findings are relevant for the development of reflection and professional understanding among health science students, as they show how students discuss and seek solutions to complex challenges in the practice.

Arts-Based Critical Inquiry in Nursing and Interdisciplinary Professional Education

In this article, transformative educators are encouraged to use an arts-based critical inquiry approach within their diversity-sensitive teaching practice. Using a Socratic dialogue, the authors describe how guided imagery, images, narratives, and poetry have been useful in developing transformative insights in relation to spiritual/ecological values, sexual orientation, and culture in the context of nursing and interdisciplinary professional education. Arts-based approaches that incorporate constructivist dimensions can potentially stimulate critical inquiry in educational settings that can spark the thoughtful dialogue and passion needed for practitioners to engage in emancipatory practices for social change. The underlying adult learning theoretical frameworks for this teaching and learning dialogue are transformative learning and unlearning. Innovative arts-based and experiential approaches to diversity-sensitive teaching nurture the dynamic engagement and individual and collective reflection that fosters interpersonal understanding and hope for meaningful community connections and social change.

Community interdisciplinary education to promote partnerships in family violence prevention.

Family violence is a major social and health problem in the United States. Educational approaches are needed that help professionals and communities develop more effective skills to work with families and communities. This article describes a statewide, interdisciplinary, community-based educational program for professionals and paraprofessionals and a 6-month post-evaluation. Participants reported knowledge and skill development in assessment and interventions, improved use of violence prevention data for planning and interventions, and increased community partnerships and collaborations. Recommendations address violence prevention leadership, funding, infrastructure, interdisciplinary professional education, greater community awareness, and policy development.

Interprofessional learning for the improvement of health care: why bother?

Two inter-professional initiatives, the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative in the United States and the Interprofessional Education Programme in the UK, are working to discover how health professionals can gain knowledge and skill in the continuous improvement of health care. They are seeking closer links between health care delivery and health professional education, between the needs of patients and communities, and those of learners. The ultimate goal is to create health care that: (1) seeks to understand and meet patients' needs; (2) organises care as a system focused around that need; (3) takes advantage of what teams of professionals can do when they work well together; and (4) improves constantly through the active efforts and innovative ideas of the health care team. This paper describes the initiatives and identifies common lessons for health care delivery and interprofessional education.

Interprofessional learning for the improvement of health care: why bother?

Two inter-professional initiatives, the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative in the United States and the Interprofessional Education Programme in the UK, are working to discover how health professionals can gain knowledge and skill in the continuous improvement of health care. They are seeking closer links between health care delivery and health professional education, between the needs of patients and communities, and those of learners. The ultimate goal is to create health care that: (1) seeks to understand and meet patients' needs; (2) organises care as a system focused around that need; (3) takes advantage of what teams of professionals can do when they work well together; and (4) improves constantly through the active efforts and innovative ideas of the health care team. This paper describes the initiatives and identifies common lessons for health care delivery and interprofessional education.

Making organizational change to achieve improvement and interprofessional learning: perspectives from health professions educators

Health professionals must learn to work in the context of an interdisciplinary team in order to meet the needs of the evolving health care delivery system. These teams must work successfully with community systems to achieve common goals, while understanding and respecting diverse perspectives, experiences and skills. Strategies for changing health professions education to prepare new health professionals for such work have been tested by the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative. Illustrations of making educational change, and creating situations to sustain the change, are offered from the Collaborative's experience. Teams participating in the Collaborative engaged in interprofessional education, working on community-based health improvement issues. The illustrations are offered in the context of higher education, and the many barriers to making change that must be overcome. The work of the Collaborative provides valuable illustrations of successful activities to promote and create change, and ultimately to achieve improvement and interprofessional learning, better preparing new health professionals for the health systems in which they will work.

Community-based quality improvement education for the health professions: balancing benefits for communities and students

In 1993, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) and the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA) formed the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative (IPEC). From the beginning, two potentially opposing challenges emerged. One reflects the first part of IPEC's aim 'to equip health professionals with the ability to continually improve'. The other reflects the second part of the aim 'to continually improve the health of the individuals and communities they serve.' Debate occurred around two questions: 'Are we educating students?' and 'Are we improving health?'. Each question reflects different and separate complex processes and systems. How can two systems-the system to educate health professionals and the system that influences the health of the community-interact so that each realises a mutual benefit? Through our work in the collaborative we identified six key factors that will lead to successful and mutually advantageous student/community projects. These are: (1) understand community health issues; (2) connect the educational institution and the community; (3) define a target community; (4) understand the people you wish to serve; (5) identify appropriate, short-term projects; (6) practice interdisciplinary teamwork. Work from two Local Interdisciplinary Teams (LIT's), Rochester, New York, and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, illustrates these factors.

A new approach to education and training in water and environmental management

The paper describes the development of a programme of interdisciplinary professional education and training in the UK as influenced by new practices in environmental management. The roles of academic institutions and professional qualifying bodies are considered in relation to career development needs. The concepts behind a radically new professional qualification are discussed and methods for its delivery in practice are explained. The importance of clearly defined aims and objectives for such a course is stressed.

Health Care in the Community, Interdisciplinary Professional Education for Students in Dietetics, Nursing and Osteopathic Medicine

Deans from three colleges selected tenured faculty to design and implement an interdisciplinary course to meet the need for active learning experiences for students across disciplines and an under-served city population with limited access to health care. A two credit course was designed with objectives in 3 areas: l) Community Service–plan and conduct 2-3 health screenings responding to family health needs; identify and prioritize client needs based on a team assessment; facilitate clients’ entry into the local health care system; 2) Professional Relationships–develop attitudes of mutual respect and practice collaborative case management; and 3) Professional Education–apply clinical skills in home and clinic settings to the in assessment of clients such as–vital signs, anthropometrics, dietary habits, and blood glucose, cholesterol and hemoglobin. Desirable class size was 21 with equal numbers recruited from seniors in Dietetics and Nursing, and 1st or 2 nd year O.M. students. Small group activities throughout the semester were designed to facilitate cross discipline interactions such as visits to community sites, short presentations on health topics, organization and implementation of 3 health screenings, follow-up home visits and small group counseling. Community members benefit by gaining access to free health screenings, health information, referrals and counseling monitored by seasoned health professionals. Students gain clinical, interpersonal and case management experience. Faculty members broaden their perspectives and knowledge by sharing clinical information and by jointly evaluating students. The colleges and university benefit via visibility within the community. The costs of such a course relate to the faculty time involved in designing and maintaining the interdisciplinary approach in an off-campus setting. The colleges view the high labor cost off the course as far surpassed by the benefits of the university's presence in the community and the benefits to faculty and students.

A new approach to education and training in water and environmental management

The paper describes the development of a programme of interdisciplinary professional education and training in the UK as influenced by new practices in environmental management. The roles of academic institutions and professional qualifying bodies are considered in relation to career development needs.The concepts behind a radically new professional qualification are discussed and methods for its delivery in practice are explained. The importance of clearly defined aims and objectives for such a course is stressed.

Collaborating for improvement in health professions education.

Continual improvement efforts have been slower in health professions education than in health care delivery. This article identifies the lessons learned by teams working in an Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative in overcoming barriers to carrying out continual improvement efforts in these educational organizations.

A multisite collaborative for the development of interdisciplinary education in continuous improvement for health professions students

In 1994, The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in Boston, Massachusetts, formed the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative (the Collaborative). The mission of the Collaborative is to create an interdisciplinary teaching and learning environment in which future health professionals learn to work together to improve health care delivery. Apart from emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, the Collaborative focuses on teaching the methods of continuous improvement (CI), a system of management first developed for manufacturing industries that is increasingly being used in the management of health care delivery. The Collaborative consists of four local interdisciplinary teams (LITs): the Cleveland LIT, the "George" LIT (a collaboration between George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia), the South Carolina LIT, and the Pennsylvania LIT; and a coordinating committee. This paper describes each LIT's approach to achieving the Collaborative's commitment to give health professions students the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams to learn about and practice CI methods, training the Collaborative believes will enable them to be effective providers in a variety of health care systems. The paper describes the overall goals of the Collaborative, presents reports from the four LITs, and discusses common lessons learned.

Working from Upstream to Improve Health Care: The IHI Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative

Recognizing the need to find new models for educating health professionals, the Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI) initiated the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative in April 1994. The goal of the Collaborative is to improve health care by working from upstream, to address the health professions workforce changes demanded by the need to deliver better care at a lower cost. With support and advice from IHI and others, faculty leaders in health professions education from the disciplines of medicine, nursing, and health administration framed a vision of the future in which "health professions education has evolved into an integrated teaching/learning environment in which health professionals are working together across discipline boundaries, using the best knowledge for improvement to continuously improve health care". This article describes the first year of the three-year project. The 1994-1995 pilot year of the Collaborative involved more than 60 learners and 50 faculty members, across multiple disciplines. At each of the four sites, education was integrated with efforts to improve health care delivery. Education-oriented outcomes include assessment of student learning (applied knowledge and skills) and program evaluation (student and faculty feedback on the effect of the project on community-based experiential learning sites). Even at this early stage, there is evidence of change in participating institutions. The Collaborative in now planning how to increase the number of students and faculty involved in such a way that a deeper understanding of how to prepare new health professionals to improve health care may be determined.

Joint education for mental health teams.

As health and social problems become more complex, the imperative for interdisciplinary professional education increases. Yet the clash of perspectives between professions has hindered the development of a common approach, and led to real power differentials. The challenge for higher education is to work with services to find models of education and training that translate into truly interdisciplinary clinical and community settings.