Resource Center

Personnel shortages are evident for a number of disciplines in the health professions, from physicians to nurses. Project CRISTAL (Collaborative Rural Interdisciplinary Service Training and Learning) was designed to immerse students in rural and reservation communities and encourage them to consider practicing in locations that have shortages of health care providers. Students gain an understanding of the importance of working as part of a health care team and address present and future health care workforce shortages.

The aim of this study was to test the feasibility and effectiveness of providing narrative training to a mixed group of doctors, nurses, social workers, and child life therapists on a pediatric oncology service for the purpose of promoting empathy, building teams, and preventing burnout. All staff members were invited to attend a weekly narrative training seminar for 6 weeks.

The Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) developed a Presidential Scholars Program (PSP) in order to foster interprofessional collaboration among students from the different health professions on campus. Now in its seventh year, the program provides approximately 40 selected students each year from six different colleges with a two-semester interprofessional educational experience. Students work in small interprofessional teams on a project designed to address a broad-based health care issue; they also participate in other structured educational sessions throughout the year.

This column shares the lived experiences of four Master Trainers who used storytelling as the methodology for teaching TeamSTEPPS to interprofessional staff members of a large health system. TeamSTEPPS is an evidence-based program that focuses on skills and behaviors that improve teamwork and communication, which are key to preventing medical errors.

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PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21053802

PubMed URL: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/21425916

Multidisciplinary fragmentation contributes to myriad medical errors and as many as 98,000 patient deaths per year. The Institute of Medicine has proposed steps to improve healthcare delivery, including providing more opportunities for interdisciplinary training. The authors describe the interprofessional education (IPE) program at Western University of Health Sciences (WesternU) in Pomona, California. In 2007, 9 colleges at WesternU-including the College of Osteopathic Medicine of the Pacific-undertook an IPE initiative that resulted in creation of a 3-phase program.

Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center has a strong history of embracing staff empowerment and shared decision making. Shared governance for nursing was implemented in 1989; a separate allied health structure was created in 1999. The two operated in parallel with few occasions for interface, and with little collaboration. With the beginning of the medical center's efforts to pursue perfect patient care in 2002, there was a marked increase in the frequency of interprofessional initiatives and collaborations in the organization.

While much literature describes programmatic success of clinical service-learning opportunities, this initiative integrates student learning across a comprehensive discipline set (Dental Medicine, Graduate Studies, Health Administration, Medicine, Nursing, Occupational Therapy, Pharmacy, Physical Therapy, and Physician Assistant), providing preventive health education and role modeling to low-income elementary-school children.

OBJECTIVE:

To integrate fourth-year doctor of pharmacy (PharmD) students within a level II trauma center team to improve their patient care and professional communication skills.

DESIGN: