Implications for school nursing through interprofessional education and practice

In Australia, a national approach to accreditation of programs and regulation of health professions was adopted a decade ago. Accreditation standards and regulatory frameworks can drive change and provide support for interprofessional education and collaborative practice. There is a commonly held belief among Australian academics involved in health professional education, that accreditation and practice standards provide system-level support for interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice. Using a purpose-designed analysis framework and scoring scheme, we analyzed standards of accreditation and practice for 29 regulated, self-regulated and member health professions in Australia to determine the extent and accountability of statements related to interprofessional education and interprofessional collaborative practice. Currently, in Australia, there is a fragmented and inconsistent approach to interprofessional education and interprofessional collaboration evident in accreditation and practice standards and, in general, there are more explicit requirements in standards of the regulated health professions. However, overall the concepts of interprofessional education and interprofessional practice are ill-defined and statements lack accountability and/or outcome measures. Our analysis provides a foundation for reform of Australian standards and an approach for analysis of accreditation and practice standards which may be useful in other jurisdictions.

Background: Healthcare in Qatar is undergoing a period of major reform, driven by a strong economy and vision for a world-class healthcare system. One area identified as a potential contributor to developing a world-class healthcare system is interprofessional education (IPE), with the goal of facilitating collaborative practice among healthcare workers. Several key steps have been taken towards developing IPE in Qatar, such as the formation of the Qatar Interprofessional Health Council (QIHC), the development of an IPE program for undergraduate healthcare students, the development of a set of shared core competencies, the receipt of substantial buy-in from leaders across the healthcare system, and recent approval of funding to develop a post-licensure healthcare IPE program. In order to improve IPE in Qatar, it is important to better understand the facilitators and barriers to interprofessional collaboration in Qatar. This study seeks to do so by qualitatively exploring facilitators and barriers to interprofessional collaboration in Qatar from the perspective of healthcare professionals. This research can assist in improving healthcare in Qatar by increasing understanding about how healthcare workers give meaning to interprofessional education and collaboration. Objectives: The purpose of this paper-presentation is to report on finding from a qualitative study that explored different facilitators and barriers of interprofessional practice in Qatar. Method: 10 healthcare professionals who work in Qatar were interviewed using semi-structured, open-ended interviews organized by the theoretical approach of phenomenology. The interviews focused on exploring barriers, facilitators, and what is working well in terms of interprofessional practice for healthcare professionals in Qatar. Findings and Implications: Different factors associated with interprofessional collaborations will be discussed. In doing so, this research adds to the literature on IPE by shedding light on interprofessional collaboration and education in the Middle East. Furthermore, this study identifies barriers for healthcare workers to work collaboratively in healthcare settings in Qatar. Addressing such barriers, and building on what is working well, will facilitate Qatar in reaching one of the Qatar National Vision 2030 goals of improving Qatar's health and wellness.

Along with calls to train nurse practitioners to be full partners in healthcare and lead interprofessional collaborative practice teams, there have been calls to enhance health professions education to develop transformative learning experiences, teach the ability to critically observe patients and capture their narrative experience of health, and assist students to become more empathic and communicate more clearly. In a Health Resources and Services Administration-funded advanced nursing education project that included advanced practice nursing, dentistry, pharmacy and social work students, several humanities-based learning strategies were infused into an interprofessional curriculum that was paired with interprofessional collaborative practice at an urban, primary care clinic serving underserved patients with multiple chronic conditions. The current study explored students’ reactions to the humanities-based interprofessional education curriculum using qualitative data from focus groups and reflective journal entries regarding student perceptions of their interprofessional collaborative practice experience in the clinical setting focused on the interprofessional education core competencies. Four major themes were identified that relate to the humanities-based curriculum. Student participants gained confidence in their abilities as health providers, improved their methods of communication and focus with patients, learned how to negotiate ethical situations in support of patient-centeredness, and grew as members of interprofessional collaborative practice teams. Thus, the inclusion of the humanities into nursing and interprofessional education and practice can assist with strengthening presence, promoting moral imagination, and evoking a reciprocity of caring that can lead to improved patient care and outcomes.

Introduction: The number of complex healthcare problems is increasing, the workforce is diminishing, and healthcare costs are rising. Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice is a promising solution, necessitating the cultivation of skills and competencies among health and social care professionals. The central question guiding this study revolves around the possibility of merging interprofessional collaboration, lifelong learning, the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF), and the Rehabilitation Competency Framework (RCF) into a unified competency framework that can be used in both education and in the work field. Method: In total, five modified Delphi rounds were executed during three phases specifically comprising the design, relevance, and report stages. The first contains a literature search, the second includes 11 pilots with surveys, and the last finalized the INPRO Competency Framework (INPRO CF). Results: The primary result is the INPRO CF that is readable, accurate, applicable, and accepted. It contains five domains, 17 competencies, and 200 learning outcomes or behaviors. It exists in four languages (Dutch, Finnish, English, German). Discussion: The INPRO CF is a relevant interprofessional competency framework designed to alleviate deficiencies between education and practice so it is suitable for a lifelong learning process. It demonstrates adaptability across various contexts. Implications for Practice The INPRO Competency Framework provides a structured overview of the learning journey in becoming an experienced interprofessional collaborator and is applicable in both practice and educational settings. The INPRO Competency Framework provides a comprehensive understanding of goals that an individual in a team can work on and structures those that it would like to achieve. The INPRO Competency Framework has the potential to positively impact person centered care by promoting collaboration among health and social care professionals. It simultaneously can contributes to transforming education by shaping curricula and preparing students for interprofessional teamwork in their future careers.

Background Healthcare is provided by a variety of different professionals, including pharmacists who are integral members of the team, and all are expected to work collaboratively to provide quality care. Little is known about the perceptions of pharmacists in Qatar towards interprofessional collaboration. Positive attitudes towards interprofessional education are essential to successful implementation of interprofessional collaboration. Therefore, to develop effective collaboration strategies in practice settings, it was essential to survey the attitudes of practising pharmacists towards collaboration. Objective To explore the awareness, views, attitudes and perceptions of practising pharmacists in Qatar towards interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Setting Community, hospital and primary healthcare settings in Qatar. Methods This was a two-staged sequential explanatory mixed method design. It utilised a quantitative survey (Stage 1), based on a modified version of the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale. This was followed by a qualitative stage, utilising focus groups (Stage 2). Main outcome measures (1) Qatar pharmacists' attitudes towards interprofessional education and collaborative practice; (2) Practising pharmacists' perspectives in relation to enablers, barriers and recommendations regarding interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Results 63% of the practising pharmacists (n = 178) responded to the survey. Three focus groups followed (total n = 14). High scores indicating readiness and positive attitudes towards interprofessional education were reported for pharmacists working in hospital, community and primary healthcare settings. Qualitative analysis identified three overarching themes in relation to the enablers, barriers and recommendations for practising pharmacists working collaboratively. The enabling themes were: professional and patient related benefits, and current positive influences in Qatar; the barriers were patients' negative perceptions; the status of the pharmacy profession and current working practices and processes; the recommendations related to improving patients' perceptions about pharmacists and enhancing the status of pharmacy profession in Qatar. The findings from this study highlighted two major observations: the lack of existence of collaborative practice and hierarchy and power play. Conclusion Pharmacists demonstrated willingness and readiness to develop interprofessional learning and collaborative practice with significant steps already taken towards improving collaborative working practices in different care settings.

It is expected that, by 2050, there will be 83.7 million adults aged 65 and older in the United States1 and 1.6 billion world-wide.2 Already there exists an unrecognized crisis in dementia and mental health care for this rapidly growing population.3 Further, the workforce with expertise in aging, dementia, and mental health/substance use (MH/SU) continues to decline, contributing to health disparities.3 As noted by both the Institute of Medicine (IOM)4 and the World Health Organization (WHO),5 interprofessional teams can play an important role in the improvement of population health outcomes for older adults. Interprofessional teams are not new to geriatrics and gerontology.6 Over the past decade, emerging strategies and models of care for interprofessional education and collaboration have built on foundations laid by several organizations.4 For example, the WHO generated the widely accepted definition and framework for interprofessional education and collaboration.5 For over 50 years, the IOM4,7–8 has supported interprofessional education and collaboration and raised awareness of workforce needs for older adults with MH/SU.3 The National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education9 has partnered with the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation,10 the Josiah Macy Jr. Foundation,9 the John A. Hartford Foundation,9,11 and the Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation,9 to further the work of the Geriatric Interdisciplinary Team Training and Geriatric Interdisciplinary Teams in Practice programs.6,9,11 The Partnership for Health and Aging (PHA)12 developed competencies for geriatrics and gerontology. Finally, the PHA and the American Geriatrics Society13 published a position statement to support team training. Yet, despite longstanding and broad support for interprofessional education and collaboration in the care of older adults, physical and mental health disparities persist. In this supplement, Farrell et al.14 recommend a unified effort to integrate geriatric and gerontology competencies, content and principles into interprofessional curricula that are aligned with objectives for health systems science.15 Those objectives aim to transform curricula to improve population health, team-based care, high-value care, leadership, quality improvement, patient safety and health policy.15 Farrell et al.14 posit that an intentional, systematic approach by health science educators, health care systems leaders and clinicians is essential to advancing innovation for positive outcomes around aging, dementia and MH/SU. Guided by the Interprofessional Learning Continuum (IPLC) model4 (see Farrell et al.,14 Figure 1), this Commentary reinforces and extends the Farrell et al.14 recommendations by highlighting national and international innovations in interprofessional geriatrics and gerontology, especially related to dementia and mental health. The comprehensive IPLC model grew out of recognition in the IOM’s “Measuring the Impact of Interprofessional Education on Collaborative Practice and Patient Outcomes”4 that curriculum reform and collaborative practice redesign are prerequisite to improving health and system outcomes.16 In that context, this Commentary provides a discussion of curriculum reform, collaborative practice redesign and their linkages to health and systems outcomes15,16 and concludes with a brief global perspective17 on interprofessional education and practice as they relate to aging, dementia and MH/SU in older adults. Innovation exemplars in interprofessional education aim to challenge and stimulate leadership in interprofessional geriatrics and gerontology.

In Canada, there is increasing recognition that poor educational outcomes of children and adolescents involved with the child welfare system represent an emerging crisis for youth, their families, and the broader society. Interprofessional education and collaboration between educators and social workers may facilitate better outcomes for children in care. Although interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration (IPC) are well established in the allied health fields, there is not an equivalent acceptance within the applied social sciences, specifically in education and child welfare contexts. This may partially be attributed to the “siloed” nature of these professions, which limits both capacity and opportunities for professionals to understand each other’s mandates, roles, and policies. The purpose of this paper is to describe the development, implementation, and evaluation of a graduate elective course for social workers and educators that was geared toward educational outcomes of children in care. Thirty-eight students from both disciplines participated in a summer institute. Although participants valued the content and process of the course, it is unclear whether these types of initiatives facilitate enhanced IPC. Findings do however suggest that IPE initiatives targeted toward a specific population may have more positive outcomes, compared to general IPC.

Founded in 2015, the Texas Interprofessional Education (IPE) Consortium has made significant headway in a relatively short time toward reaching the vision of becoming a state and national model of inter-institutional collaboration around interprofessional education and practice to innovate healthcare education, enhance the patient experience, and improve individual and population health outcomes. The Texas IPE Consortium is a community of practice (CoP) committed to longitudinal and sustainable programming dedicated to curricular development around IPE to improve statewide outcomes for students, faculty, and preceptors. The Texas IPE Consortium exemplifies how collaborative leadership can leverage shared knowledge, best practices, and experiences toward ensuring that learners consistently receive high-quality interprofessional training. Greater alignment and consensus of health professions educational priorities and experiences across a state or region could amplify the power of IPE. By intentionally working together across institutions and community practice agencies, new levels of collaborative performance can be achieved.

The effectiveness of interprofessional classroom-based education in medical curricula: A systematic review

Insights from an interprofessional education course- a mixed methods study among novice healthcare professionals.

BackgroundIt is pivotal to implement effective collaboration among professionals from different disciplines in the healthcare sector. As the complexity of patients’ health needs grows, so does the importance of developing innovative and efficient models of patient care that rely on interprofessional collaborative teamwork. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a valuable approach that improves communication, collaboration, and ultimately safe patient outcomes in healthcare settings. Students studying medicine and pharmacy are among the healthcare professionals who could potentially benefit from IPE. Despite the existence of newly added undergraduate curricula for interprofessional communication and professionalism, active implementation to achieve the required competencies and skills is not yet widespread, particularly in developing countries. This article presents a successful implementation of simulation-based team-oriented learning sessions among pharmacy and medical students at Delta University for Science and Technology in Egypt. The purpose of the IPE activity was to train students to work collaboratively as members of an interprofessional healthcare team by simulating a real-life situation.ResultsStudent feedback was very positive with most pharmacy and medical students being satisfied with their IPE experience. Moreover, students’ feedback emphasized the significance of IPE and a simulated team-based environment in improving communication skills and collaborative practice.ConclusionThe high level of student satisfaction with the IPE sessions, particularly regarding the clarity of training objectives and the interactive nature of the experience, suggests that simulation-based learning is an effective tool for developing key interprofessional collaboration skills among healthcare students. This highlights the potential of IPE to cultivate future healthcare professionals who excel in interprofessional collaboration, ultimately leading to improved patient care and outcomes. Overcoming barriers to implementing IPE in Egypt needs a multifaceted strategy and a comprehensive long-term follow-up plan is critical for evaluating the lasting effect of IPE on students’ collaborative practices in real-life healthcare settings.

Healthcare requires practitioners to successfully negotiate boundaries between communities of practice (CoP) in a clinical landscape of practice (LoP), with development of interprofessional identity important in promoting successful interprofessional collaboration. Interprofessional education (IPE) centered around acute hospital inpatients offers a potential pathway to encourage boundary negotiation and interprofessional identity development. This study aimed to explore interprofessional student teams and their interactions with patients in an acute hospital setting, while investigating if such interactions encouraged interprofessional collaboration and the development of an interprofessional identity. Pivoting around acute hospital inpatients, four interprofessional workshops occurred involving senior medicine, nursing and physiotherapy students. We utilized a concurrent mixed methods design, with qualitative predominating. Qualitative reflexive thematic analysis of post-workshop semi-structured focus groups was supported by quantitative investigation using a validated pre-test post-test international socialisation and valuing scale. Using the landscapes of practice theory lens, we noted that the central role of acute hospital inpatients in the IPE workshops enabled healthcare students to develop knowledgeability of the clinical LoP, in line with the three modes of identification of LoP, namely Engagement, Imagination and Alignment. Following the IPE workshops, where acute inpatients played the pivotal role, students demonstrated a statistically significant increase in interprofessional collaborative practice in terms of the overall interprofessional socialisation and valuing scale and its subscales of value, ability, and comfort in working with each other. Our findings indicate that IPE centered around acute hospital inpatients is a beneficial and effective way to successfully implement IPE in the undergraduate curriculum.

Interprofessional Collaboration in the Perianesthesia Setting

The growing complexity of care and healthcare workforce shortages in the Netherlands necessitates exploring interprofessional collaboration (IPC). However, the predominant single-professional education may result in a professional identity (PI) among healthcare students, which may not support successful IPC. Internships in student-run interprofessional learning wards (SR-IPLW) could foster interprofessional identity (IPI) development. There is a need for a better understanding of the intricacies involved in learning to work collaboratively, particularly when undergraduates are still shaping their professional identities. Our aim, therefore, was to identify facilitators and barriers for interprofessional education (IPE), IPC, and identity development among 21 healthcare students during a 20-week clinical placement on a SR-IPLW in rehabilitation medicine. An action-based prospective study using grounded theory analysis of nine focus groups across three semesters identified 17 theoretical codes. These codes are elaborated in a conceptual model highlighting facilitators and barriers for IPC and identity development, emphasizing the importance of fostering feelings of relatedness, competence, and autonomy. There are indications that professional and interprofessional identities changed during the internship. Implications for preceptors are delineated, showing the importance of personal relationships and elements of a positive learning climate.

As the value of interprofessional practice becomes increasingly recognized, it is critical to educate social work students so that they understand the importance of interprofessional practice, and the role that social workers play. The objective of this research was to understand social work students’ experiences, attitudes, and perspectives toward interprofessional practice. A cross-sectional, non-probability convenience sample was used (N = 125), with data collected from students in a large school of social work in New York State in order to understand their experiences in the field and classroom. Results of a linear regression showed that overall, students had positive perspectives on interprofessional collaboration, with one of the strongest predictors being students' positive attitudes toward interprofessional practice. The results also point to students having limited experience in working in interprofessional teams and exposure to training, either on the job or in the classroom. To help students gain more experience and training, fieldwork opportunities in interprofessional practice can be expanded, and more courses can be offered, particularly collaborating with other academic disciplines.