Resource Center

OBJECTIVES:

The Institute of Medicine called for the integration of interprofessional education (IPE) into health professions curricula, in order to improve health care quality. In response, we developed, implemented, and evaluated a campus wide IPE program, shifting from traditional educational silos to greater collaboration.

METHODS:

To develop and evaluate a classroom-based curriculum designed to promote interprofessional competencies by having undergraduate students from various health professions work together on system-based problems using quality improvement (QI) methods and tools to improve patient-centered care.

DESIGN:

BACKGROUND: There is a need for tools by which to evaluate the beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes that underlie interprofessional socialization and collaborative practice in health care settings.

Work-integrated learning is essential to health professional education, but faces increasing academic and industry resource pressures. The aim of this pilot "Professional Practice Project" was to develop and implement an innovative education intervention for clinical educators across several health disciplines. The project used interprofessional collaboration as its underlying philosophy, and a participatory action research methodology in four cycles: Cycle 1: Formation of an interprofessional project executive and working party from academic staff.

The need for interprofessional education is now firmly embedded in undergraduate healthcare curricula frameworks in Northern Ireland and has a role to play in preparation for professional practice. A questionnaire determining students' "readiness" for interprofessional education has been widely used and reported in the literature but there are other factors that contribute to students' abilities to learn in an interprofessional context.

INTRODUCTION:

Interprofessional collaborative practices are increasingly recognized as an effective way to deal with complex health problems. However, health sciences students continue to be trained in specialized programs and have little occasion for learning in interdisciplinary contexts.

PROGRAM DEVELOPMENT:

BACKGROUND:

Falls are a common and important clinical problem, and with ageing populations worldwide it is important for health care professionals to learn about falls management. The multidisciplinary nature of falls teams also provides an ideal opportunity for interprofessional collaboration in teaching.

CONTEXT:

In this article, we describe a pilot multidisciplinary falls assessment and prevention workshop for second-year medical students at a London medical school.

INNOVATION AND IMPLICATIONS:

OBJECTIVES:

To explore final-year physiotherapy students' perceptions and experiences of interprofessional learning in the university and placement setting.

STUDY DESIGN:

Focus group and mixed qualitative and quantitative questionnaire.

SETTING:

Coventry University.

PARTICIPANTS:

Third-year physiotherapy students at Coventry University.

METHODS:

OBJECTIVE:

To implement a simulated interprofessional rounding experience using human patient simulators as a required activity for third-year pharmacy students in a clinical assessment course.

DESIGN:

Interprofessional student teams consisting of pharmacy, medical, and physician assistant students participated in a simulated interprofessional rounding experience in which they provided comprehensive medical care for a simulated patient in an inpatient setting.

ASSESSMENT: