Journal of Research in Interprofessional Practice and Education (JRIPE)
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Assessing Interprofessional Learning during a Student Placement in an Interprofessional Rehabilitation University Clinic in Primary Healthcare in a Canadian Francophone Minority Context
Get PDFBackground: Interprofessional collaboration is deemed the key to quality patient care and the future for healthcare delivery models. Such a complex competency needs to be learned; as such, interprofessional education should be a key component of health professional programs. An Interprofessional Rehabilitation University Clinic was created to promote interprofessional education at the pre-licensure level. However, few resources are currently available to assess interprofessional learning; no tool (English or French) that specifically assesses interprofessional learning could be identified.Methods and Findings: A self-administered questionnaire was developed to assess interprofessional learning during a clinical placement. Using a single-group posttest-only design, this descriptive pilot project reports the results obtained with this tool for the first 15 students on placement at the Clinic. Preliminary findings suggest this tool helped demonstrate that, during placements in an interprofessional clinic, students developed some understanding of their own profession as well as of other professions. Responses showed that participants believe that interprofessional interventions are more efficient, save time, and facilitate sharing of information leading to a better comprehension of the clients’ situations. The tool suggests that students feel that an interprofessional educational experience is beneficial for clients and for themselves.Conclusions: Assessing interprofessional learning is challenging. Although the tool developed during this project is most promising, further research is warranted to increase its usefulness in assessing interprofessional learning
Evaluation of an Interprofessional Problem-based Learning Module on Care of Persons Living with HIV/AIDS
Get PDFBackground: Interprofessional education (IPE) holds great promise in continuing to reform the management of complex chronic conditions such as HIV/AIDS, and Problem-based Learning (PBL) is a suitable format for IPE. This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a large scale, compulsory interprofessional PBL module on HIV/AIDS education. In 2004, 30 physical therapy and 30 medical students at the University of Saskatchewan engaged in the HIV/AIDS PBL module. By 2007 over 300 students from seven healthcare programs were involved.Methods and Findings: The module was evaluated over the years using student satisfaction surveys, focus groups, self-assessments, and in 2007 with written pretest/post-tests. Students rated the learning experience about both HIV/AIDS and about interprofessional collaboration, at 4 or 5 out of 6 and effect sizes fell between d = .70 and 3.19. That only one pre-test/post-test study was conducted at a single institution is one of the limitations of this study.Conclusions: Students generally thought highly of the interprofessional PBL module on HIV/AIDS and learned a considerable amount. Although more research is needed to substantiate the self-assessment data, establish what and how much is being learned, and compare PBL to alternative methodologies, PBL is a promising approach to IPE
Designing and Operationalizing a Toolkit of Bilingual Interprofessional Education Assessment Instruments
Get PDFThis article addresses one of the most important unresolved issues of interprofessional education (IPE): assessment. Here we describe our process and experiences designing and operationalizing a toolkit of qualitative and quantitative IPE assessment instruments for online and face-to-face education programs developed concurrently in both English and French. The toolkit includes a) the quantitative W(e)Learn program evaluation survey, which aligns with the W(e)Learn framework, b) the quantitative Interprofessional Collaborative Competencies Attainment Survey (ICCAS), to self-assess competency development in collaborative practice using a post-post design, and c) qualitative team and learner contracts, with explanatory exemplars, that serve as both learning and assessment tools. These instruments are currently undergoing validation in hopes of a) increasing the likelihood that IPE experiences are planned and delivered effectively and b) increasing the justification and accountability of IPE experiences and practical outcomes. Although this validation process will continue for some time, the development of the IPE assessment tools is worthy of particular attention in order to guide further work in this field. French and English copies of the toolkit assessments can be downloaded from http://ennovativesolution.com/WeLearn/IPE-Instruments.html. Although these instruments were designed with interprofessional healthcare teams in mind, we feel they could readily be transferable to a variety of interdisciplinary tasks and settings, such as social work and human services education
How Medical Students Conceptualize Disability: Implications for Interprofessional Practice and Education
No full textBackground: This study explored whether medical students at a Canadian university conceptualize health and disability from a biomedical or biopsychosocial perspective. The World Health Organization's (WHO) International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) served as the theoretical basis for this exploration.Methods: A written survey was administered to capture medical students' conceptualizations of health and disability. The survey included questions explicitly related to the constructs of universalism, nonlinearity, social and environmental factors, personal factors, participation, aspects of language and biopsychosocial health perspectives. The survey was also designed to include both theoretical and scenario-based questions related to biopsychosocial concepts of disability. The survey was distributed to and completed by a senior medical school class at a Canadian university.Results: In total, 82 out of 131 medical students completed the survey. Observed trends suggested that for theory-based questions, respondents exhibited close agreement with biopsychosocial perspectives of health and disability. Scenariobased questions resulted in more variability among respondents compared to theory-based questions. When students who previously had been introduced to the ICF were compared with students who had not, those familiar with the ICF more consistently exhibited a biopsychosocial perspective of health and disability; however these differences were not statistically significant.Conclusion: Overall, senior medical students in this study were generally found to conceptualize disability using a biopsychosocial orientation. This result was more pronounced among students who were previously familiar with the ICF. Interestingly, a biopsychosocial orientation was not consistently maintained for scenario-based questions for all respondents. Our current healthcare climate requires that the concept of health move beyond a biomedical perspective to a more holistic biopsychosocial perspective. This change in perspective is of particular importance as movement towards team-based models of care continues to gain momentum. Closing conceptual and language-based gaps related to concepts of health and disability among all healthcare professionals is pertinent to improvinginterprofessional collaboration and service provision. The ICF presents a framework and language that is relevant across all health professions. Increased use of the ICF in health professional education and training could significantly contribute to increased interdisciplinary success
Assessing Student Attitudes as a Result of Participating in an Interprofessional Healthcare Elective Associated with a Student-Run Free Clinic
Get PDFBackground: An interprofessional elective using a student-run clinic can introduce students to professional roles, collaborative patient care, and health disparities. Methods and Findings: Students from four professions (pharmacy, medicine, physician assistant, and physical therapy) participated in a service-learning elective where they received weekly didactic lectures and provided healthcare in a student-run free clinic. Additional interprofessional activities included a quality improvement project and a case presentation. Students were administered anonymous surveys before and after the elective to assess changes in their attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork. A total of 93 and 74 students completed the pre-survey and post-survey, respectively. After participating in the elective, significantly more students reported working in interprofessional teams and understood the role of physician assistants. The majority of other attitudes about interprofessional collaboration and professional roles were sustained or improved after the elective.Conclusion: An interprofessional service-learning elective using didactic and experiential learning in an interprofessional, student-run free clinic sustained or improved student attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork. The elective had a significant impact on increased student experience working in interprofessional healthcare teams and increased understanding of health professions’ roles. Continued assessment of the impact on student behaviours and patient outcomes is warranted
See It – Do It – Learn It: Learning Interprofessional Collaboration in the Clinical Context
Get PDFBackground: The primary goal of the Interprofessional Education in Geriatric Care (IEGC) project was to design, deliver, and evaluate interprofessional (IP) clinical placements for pre-licensure learners in geriatric day hospitals.Methods: Project evaluation was guided by the modified Kirkpatrick's Model of Educational Outcomes. Using a controlled before-after design, the Attitudes Toward Health Care Teams Scale (ATHCTS), Team Skills Scale (TSS), and Knowledge Questionnaire were administered to intervention and control learners pre-, post-, and 6 months post clinical placements. Quantitative data were analyzed using descriptive and multivariate statistics. Qualitative data collected through journals and questionnaires were analyzed using content analysis.Findings: Eleven IP clinical placements occurred at 3 test sites involving 32 intervention and 11 control learner participants. There was no significant change, over time, in the ATHCTS quality of care and physician centrality scores for the combined group (i.e., intervention and control) and between intervention and control groups. Time effects were noted in the quality of care scores for the intervention group after controlling for prior IPE (p = .031). The Knowledge scores were higher for the intervention group compared with controls over time (p = .004). Both intervention and control groups demonstrated significant improvements in their TSS scores over time (p = .000), although there was no significant difference in the magnitude of the change between groups (p = .112). Themes observed through qualitative analysis of learners' journals and post-program reflective questionnaires supported the quantitative findings.Conclusions: The IEGC experience was valuable to senior pre-licensure learners in helping them understand collaborative patient-centred practice and team skills. Future research should strive for larger sample sizes through multi-site projects to allow for comparisons within and between clinical sites
Interprofessional Relationships in the Field of Obesity: Data from Canada
Get PDFBackground: While it is generally acknowledged that an interprofessional approach is necessary to treat and prevent obesity, there have been few empirical studies examining the working relationships of professionals in the obesity field.Methods: In this article social network analysis is used to examine the working relationships of 111 attendees, representing eleven different health professions, at the first National Obesity Summit in Canada. We assessed the extent of engagement in interprofessional relations across four activities: discussion, gathering information, providing care, and conducting research. We also examined attitudes toward interprofessional practice.Findings: On average, respondents reported that approximately 75% of the people they work with are from other professions. Attitudes toward interprofessional practice were generally positive, and did not vary significantly across professions. Interestingly, attitudes were not related to actual interprofessional relations in our sample. In terms of work type, we found that respondents who were engaged in both clinical and research work had the largest networks and had the highest percentage of interprofessional contacts in their discussion and research networks.Conclusions: Overall, the results suggest that within our sample of professionals working in the field of obesity, interprofessional practice is held in high regard as a concept. The results also suggest that members of professions that combine both research and clinical work are most likely to engage in interprofessional relationships. This article illustrates the utility of social network analysis to assess the extent of interprofessional relationships among those working in a particular healthcare field
Becoming an Interprofessional Community of Practice: A Qualitative Study of an Interprofessional Fellowship
Get PDFBackground: The social learning model, Communities of Practice (CoP), serves as an organizing framework for this study of interprofessional learning. The author, a nurse, completed the study while a doctoral student in a school of education. The objective of the study was to understand the phenomenon of participation in interprofessional learning experiences among a group of graduate students, faculty, and administrators, and the extent to which the markers of the communities of practice model were present in those experiences.Methods and Findings: This qualitative study used principles of constructivist grounded theory methodology. The objective was to seek out participants’ expressed experience as data to guide theory development. The participants were graduate students, faculty, and administrators from an interprofessional fellowship in developmental disabilities. Processes of building community and making meaning of the experience were themes that related to the Wenger CoP model. Feeling respected was a theme that was identified in this study and that is not found in the CoP model.Conclusions: The findings indicated that participants were able to form an interprofessional community of practice based on the markers of Wenger’s model. This initial study moves toward the development of an organizing theory of an effective interprofessional community of practice (EICoP). 
