Interprofessional education and service learning: a model for the future of health professions education

Abstract

The implementation of interprofessional education for healthcare professionals has been lackluster, at best, since it was recommended by the Institute of Medicine. There have been various attempts in institutions of higher learning to meet this goal with mixed results. Herbert Wertheim College of Medicine, Florida International University has developed the Green Family NeighborhoodHELP? (GFNHelp) program to meet this challenge. GFNHelp is an interprofessional, longitudinal, service-learning program for healthcare students. Through participation in this program medical students team up with students from other professions, such as nursing, social work, and law, and collaborate to improve health outcomes for medically underserved families in the community. This educational program emphasizes the Core Competencies of the Interprofessional Education Collaborative through community-based service-learning, allowing student teams to engage firsthand and address the impact of social determinants on health.     

Abstracts

The abstracts service introduces readers to recent articles from a wide range of refereed journals, which may be of interest in respect of interprofessional practice, education and research, from any where in the world. The abstracts highlight the interprofessional nature of the article, within the context of a brief overview. We invite all readers to send us articles, which fit the criteria, and will acknowledge those who send the selected articles, in the Journal. (For address see end of the section.)     

Working together to learn together: learning together to work together

Interprofessional non-technical skills for surgeons in disaster response have not yet been developed. The aims of this study were to identify the non-technical skills required of surgeons in disaster response and training for disaster response and to explore the barriers and facilitators to interprofessional practice in surgical teams responding to disasters. Twenty health professionals, with prior experience in natural disaster response or education, participated in semi-structured in-depth interviews. A qualitative matrix analysis design was used to thematically analyze the data. Non-technical skills for surgeons in disaster response identified in this study included skills for austere environments, cognitive strategies and interprofessional skills. Skills for austere environments were physical self-care including survival skills, psychological self-care, flexibility, adaptability, innovation and improvisation. Cognitive strategies identified in this study were “big picture” thinking, situational awareness, critical thinking, problem solving and creativity. Interprofessional attributes include communication, team-player, sense of humor, cultural competency and conflict resolution skills. “Interprofessionalism” in disaster teams also emerged as a key factor in this study and incorporated elements of effective teamwork, clear leadership, role adjustment and conflict resolution. The majority of participants held the belief that surgeons needed training in non-technical skills in order to achieve best practice in disaster response. Surgeons considerring becoming involved in disaster management should be trained in these skills, and these skills should be incorporated into disaster preparation courses with an interprofessional focus.     

Physicians’ perceptions of the role of the dental hygienist in interprofessional collaboration: a pilot study

ABSTRACT

Shifts in healthcare models, and greater numbers of patients seeking care, has encouraged professional organizations to recommend collaborative healthcare teams. In the realm of oral health, the American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) and the Commission on Dental Accreditation (CODA) have set recommendations that interprofessional collaboration (IPC) be emphasized in the profession. The purpose of this study was to determine physicians’ perceptions of the role of the dental hygienist in IPC. A pilot study utilizing a nonprobability sampling method which included a purposive sample of 30 licensed physicians was conducted. The survey addressed: personal experiences with a dental hygienist, dental hygienists’ roles working in collaboration with physicians, experiences with IPC, benefits of working with dental hygienists, barriers, and demographics. The majority (77.7%) supported the concept that dental hygienists have the necessary education and are important in IPC. Over 77.7% indicated dental hygienists would add value to a medical practice. Time and transfer of data were identified as primary obstacles in working collaboratively with dental hygienists. Findings revealed dental hygienists have the necessary education to be valuable members of IPC teams. Future research is needed to broaden the scope of studies among dental hygienists and other members of IPC teams.     

Interprofessional collaboration may pay off: introducing a collaborative approach in an orthopaedic ward

Abstract

Fast-track hip and knee surgery focuses on optimising pain management, achieving early mobilisation and shortening the length of stay in hospital. These factors make interprofessional collaboration imperative. With the aim of further diminishing the length of stay for patients admitted to an orthopaedic ward for hip or knee replacement and with inspiration from an interprofessional training unit, a daily interprofessional meeting was introduced. At this interprofessional meeting, surgeons, nurses, occupational therapists and physiotherapists used a checklist in discussing barriers and focus areas for discharging hip and knee replacement patients and made joint decisions about which healthcare profession should handle a given task. This interprofessional collaboration was tested in a case control study comparing hospital length of stay in 75 patients treated before introduction of the daily interprofessional meeting with 88 patients treated after the introduction. The result was a significant reduction in the length of stay in hospital in total hip replacement patients (from a mean of 4.1 days (SD 2.1) to 2.7 days (SD 1.4), p?<?0.05) but not in knee replacement patients (from a mean of 3.7 days (SD 1.9) to 3.1 days (SD 1.6), p?=?0.33). So improving interprofessional collaboration by introducing an interprofessional daily meeting may reduce the length of stay in hospital for total hip replacement patients, but further studies are needed to explore the effect in knee replacement patients.     

Healthcare providers' perspectives on an interprofessional education intervention for promoting community re-engagement post stroke

Abstract

Natural disasters impose a significant burden on society. Current disaster training programmes do not place an emphasis on equipping surgeons with non-technical skills for disaster response. This literature review sought to identify non-technical skills required of surgeons in disaster response through an examination of four categories of literature: “disaster"; “surgical”; “organisational management”; and “interprofessional”. Literature search criteria included electronic database searches, internet searches, hand searching, ancestry searching and networking strategies. Various potential non-technical skills for surgeons in disaster response were identified including: interpersonal skills such as communication, teamwork and leadership; cognitive strategies such flexibility, adaptability, innovation, improvisation and creativity; physical and psychological self-care; conflict management, collaboration, professionalism, health advocacy and teaching. Such skills and the role of interprofessionalism should be considered for inclusion in surgical disaster response training course curricula.     

Complexity,collective learning and the education of interprofessional health teams: Insights from a university-level course

This paper describes a collaborative action research project carried out by the author and the instructors of a large university-level interprofessional health team course. The research focused on introducing new complexity science-based ideas about collective learning to the course's pedagogy and curriculum, and tracking resultant changes in both thinking and practice. A number of insights emerged from the research, including a deeper understanding of collective learning in interprofessional contexts, a questioning of the meaning of consensus within teams, and the identification of a special role for trust in interprofessional relationships. One significant practical change in the course curriculum, which related to these insights, is also described.     

Interprofessional education in maternity services: Is there evidence to support policy?

Against a backdrop of poor maternity and obstetric care, identified in the Morecambe Bay Inquiry, the UK government has recently called for improvements and heralded investment in training. Given the complex mix of professionals working closely together in maternity services addressing the lack of joined up continuing professional development (CPD) is necessary. This led us to ask whether there is evidence of IPE in maternity services. As part of a wider systematic review of IPE, we searched for studies related to CPD in maternity services between May 2005 and June 2014. A total of 206 articles were identified with 24 articles included after initial screening. Further review revealed only eight articles related to maternity care, none of which met the inclusion criteria for the main systematic review. The main reasons for non-inclusion included weak evaluation, a focus on undergraduate IPE, and articles referring to paediatric/neonatal care only. Fewer articles were found than anticipated given the number of different professions working together in maternity services. This gap suggests further investigation is warranted.