Nursing Students Learn Online Interprofessional Education on Substance Use.

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.

To pilot an online interprofessional education (IPE) applied learning activity (ALA), to understand students' socialization and values towards IPE teams, and evaluate the IPE learning activity for future implementation. A pre-and post-test design was used to assess interprofessional socialization and values utilizing the (ISVS-9A/9B) surveys before and after the IPE ALA among dental hygiene (DH) and Master of Public Health (MPH) students (n=86). Three statements from the ISVS-9A/9B surveys were not included due to the nature of the activity. The IPE ALA was a case study related to a federally funded community health center seeking funding for a dental van within 14 local targeted communities (i.e., children, senior citizens, special needs). Student groups were randomly assigned to one targeted community and completed questions that required application of prevention, systems thinking and management and solutions of oral health issues. Students collaboratively developed an executive summary and presentation through an online learning platform. A total of 73 DH (n=38) and MPH (n=35) students (84.8% response rate) completed the ISVS 9-A (modified), and 57 students DH (n=33) and MPH (n=24) students (66.3% response rate) completed the ISVS-9B (modified) and IPE activity evaluation. A positive change (pre-post) was observed based on the students' responses (p<0.05) and 64% agreed that the skills obtained from the IPE ALA would help them in their careers. Overall, student learners' ISVS toward IPE improved after engaging in the online ALA. The use of online platforms is one low resource strategy to integrate IPE experiences into allied health and dental education.

Interprofessional education (IPE) needs to begin with foundational learning experiences for health professions learners at an institution. There is a recognized need for IPE to be embedded into health profession curriculums; however, several barriers prevent the implementation. The purpose of this project was to determine if an introductory online IPE course can overcome some of the existing barriers to implementing IPE while influencing team perceptions among health professional students. The modified Team Skills Scale was used to assess perceptions of students from six health professions programs pre-posttest to the introductory course. The researchers grounded the development of the course in the Institute of Medicine’s Interprofessional Learning Continuum. Results show that an introductory online course in IPE can affect team perceptions of students and can be offered on a large scale with minimal impact on faculty workload. The pedagogical approach implies institutions with large numbers of health professions programs, large numbers of students and distance learners may benefit from a similar approach to introducing interprofessional collaboration.

Background: The importance of the interprofessional education (IPE) program has been depicted through various forms of the IPE curriculum. The COVID-19 pandemic has forced a change in the implementation of IPE; this has caused the method of implementing IPE to change online. This study aims to assess the readiness of three different healthcare professions for implementing IPE using the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS).Methods: The RIPLS survey was completed by 108 medical students, 40 pharmacy students, and 30 nursing students at Universitas Syiah Kuala, Indonesia. The survey was done after the students carried out the online IPE intervention, which was held during the COVID-19 pandemic. They also completed open-ended questions reflecting their attitude towards and experience from the online IPE implementation.Results: There was no significant difference regarding student readiness for interprofessional learning among the three academic disciplines. Generally, as many as 57.9% of students showed a positive perception of IPE. Separate analysis for each study program showed that all of them were in the high range of scores for positive perception. Pharmacy students have the highest positive perception of IPE (60%), while medical and nursing students’ scores were 54.6% and 53.3%, respectively. Qualitative interviews revealed that: 1) the scheduling of IPE implementation was not suitable for the students, 2) the online communication between professions was not as effective as expected challenging, and 3) there was a growing awareness to respect other professions.Conclusion: It can be concluded that conducting the IPE program during the COVID-19 pandemic experienced many obstacles, especially communication. However, it still maintains the main objective of IPE, which is to respect other professions.

Introduction: The use of online media to deliver interprofessional education (IPE) is becoming more prevalent across health professions education settings. Facilitation of IPE activities is known to be critical to the effective delivery of IPE, however, specifics about the nature of online IPE facilitation remains unclear.Aim: To explore the health professions education literature to understand the extent, range and nature of research on online IPE facilitation.Methods: Scoping review methodology was used to guide a search of four electronic databases for relevant papers. Of the 2095 abstracts initially identified, after screening of both abstracts and full-text papers, 10 studies were selected for inclusion in this review. Following abstraction of key information from each study, a thematic analysis was undertaken.Results: Three key themes emerged to describe the nature of the IPE facilitation literature: (1) types of online IPE facilitation contributions, (2) the experience of online IPE facilitation and (3) personal outcomes of online IPE facilitation. These IPE facilitation themes were particularly focused on facilitation of interprofessional student teams on an asynchronous basis.Discussion: While the included studies provide some insight into the nature of online IPE facilitation, future research is needed to better understand facilitator contributions, and the facilitation experience and associated outcomes, both relating to synchronous and asynchronous online environments.

The future of health professions education: Emerging trends in the United States.

The sustainability of health services globally is under increasing pressure with a rise in chronic conditions, an ageing population, ageing workforce and increased fiscal, safety and quality issues. One important strategy acknowledged to address these pressures is greater collaboration between health professions, often described as interprofessional practice (IPP) or collaborative practice. While many health professionals believe they already engage in IPP, in reality they are working alongside each other within their own professional silo (World Health Organization, 2010). The continuation of this siloed way of working impacts the occupational therapy profession, particularly evident in the lack of understanding of how occupational therapy contributes to the health of individuals, communities and the health system. Few people, including those with whom we work, understand what constitutes occupational therapy (Alotaibi, Shayea, Nadar & Tariah, 2015). Without that understanding, members of the health professional team are not able to appropriately refer to our services, or include occupational therapy in the delivery of care. An evident lack of understanding of the role of occupational therapy frustrates occupational therapists and denies clients access to services and achievement of their occupational goals (Britton, Rosenwax & McNamara, 2015; Keesing & Rosenwax, 2013). It also impacts the status of the profession, job satisfaction and retention (Moore, Cruickshank & Haas, 2006). Limited understanding of other professions not only impacts occupational therapy; health professionals generally do not fully understand the scope of practice, knowledge, skills and core values of other professions (Aguilar, Stupans, Scutter & King, 2014). Without this understanding, effective IPP is not possible. IPP does not just happen. It is widely recognised that interprofessional education (IPE) is needed to build staff capacity/capabilities for IPP. The World Health Organization defines IPE as ‘occurring when two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improve health outcomes’ (World Health Organization, 2010). Many Universities have embedded IPE into health curriculum including two-thirds of Universities in the UK (Barr, Helme & D'Avray, 2014) and 85% of Universities in the USA (Greer, Clay, Blue, Evan & Garr, 2014). Unfortunately the same cannot be said for Australia and New Zealand. A recent review indicated that while 80% of the universities stated they had IPE in the curriculum, only 24% met the definition of IPE (Lapkin, Levett-Jones & Gilligan, 2012). This lack of IPE and IPP extends beyond universities and into student fieldwork placements. Even when IPP experiences are reported to occur during placements, the majority of these entail tutorials and education sessions (Davidson, Smith, Dodd, Smith & O'Loughlan, 2008) rather than structured learning experiences where students are facilitated to learn about, from and with other health professionals, clients and carers. Health students need to be provided with opportunities for IPP, particularly as it happens rarely within Australian health settings. Based on our experiences, students provided with such opportunities demonstrate increased valuing of teamwork, confidence in sharing expertise, trust and respect for other professions, altered stereotypical views and appropriate referrals. Additionally, having experienced IPP, clients cite high satisfaction with their care (Brewer & Stewart-Wynne, 2013). Our experiences include a training ward, dementia unit, primary schools, integrated primary care health facility, aged care, rehabilitation, mental health and an international service learning programme running for the past decade. While barriers exist to imbedding IPE and IPP, they should not be accepted as an excuse to persist with our current siloed approach to health education and practice. Universities have a responsibility to prepare our graduates to be leaders and agents of change to better meet the needs of the community (Frenk et al., 2010). Based on our experiences, we believe that IPP can help address the vexing question of ‘What is occupational therapy?’ By learning about, from and with each other, there is the opportunity to understand and experience the breadth, depth, values and scope of occupational therapy and other professions. With IPP as the norm, health professionals, clients and carers will be much better situated to work in partnership with occupational therapy.

ABSTRACTInterprofessional collaborative practice expands resources in rural and underserved communities. This article explores the impact of an online education programme on the perceptions of healthcare providers about interprofessional care within alcohol and drug use screening for rural residents. Nurses, behavioural health counsellors, and public health professionals participated in an evidence-based practice (screening, brief intervention, and referral to treatment—SBIRT) model that targets individuals who use alcohol and other drugs in a risky manner. SBIRT is recommended by the United States Preventive Services Task Force as a universal, evidence-based screening tool. Online modules, case simulation practice, and interprofessional dialogues are used to deliver practice-based learning experiences. A quasi-experimental method with pre-tests and post-tests was utilised. Results indicate increased perceptions of professional competence, need for cooperation, actual cooperation, and role values pre-to-post training. Implications suggest that online interprofessional education is useful but the added component of professional dialogues regarding patient cases offers promise in promoting collaborative practice.

Inter-professional education is one of the transformations in medical education. Though prevalent more in developed than developing countries for about half a century, but only in the last 10 years has shown an overriding role in various health related fields. Inter-professional or collaborative education was started in order to improve health care delivery by incorporating better communication, team work, assigning responsibilities to individual providers and observing ethical values in a health care setting, among providers of various professional background. World Health Organization and other top rated education agencies have necessitated the role of IPE but with insufficient evidence from dif- ferent fields of medical practice. The role of IPE has been determined in medical education, by se- lecting work setting, types of professionals, content of the course, data collection procedures and use of subsequent analysis. Most of the evidence regarding effectiveness of IPE in actual collaborative practice is demonstrated from developed countries. While developing countries basically reported dy- namics of IPE and lack enough evidence in evaluating Inter-Professional Practice (IPP).&#x0D; This review is written in order to identify the global incidence of IPE and particularly that of the devel- oping world. An attempt has been made to identify the gaps in available literature for its fields of prac- tice or research techniques applied in IPE and the types of its domains that has been studied.

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.

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.

Interprofessional education (IPE) prepares health students to become collaboration-ready healthcare professionals. Assessing students’ baseline attitudes toward IPE and collaborative practice is essential to inform development of IPE curricula. Kuwait University Health Sciences Center (HSC) is early in its IPE journey but is planning to join the broader global movement toward IPE. A cross-sectional survey was conducted to explore the attitudes of HSC students from Faculties of Medicine, Dentistry, Pharmacy, and Allied Health Sciences toward collaborative practice and IPE at early and late stages of study. A total of 770 students completed the survey (81.1% response rate). Students expressed positive attitudes toward interprofessional healthcare teams and IPE (median [IQR] overall attitudes were rated 4.0 [1.0] and 4.0 [2.0], respectively, on a scale of 5). Overall attitudes toward both scales were significantly more positive among pharmacy students than students from other faculties (p < .001). Final-year students reported more positive attitudes toward healthcare teams than early- and middle-year students, while early- and final-year students expressed more positive attitudes toward IPE than middle-year students (p < .001). There were no significant differences in overall attitudes between female and male students toward the two scales (p > .05). These findings have implications for engaging students from different professions in IPE initiatives.

Background: The COVID-19 crisis impacted the educational system worldwide, which shifted from face-to-face sessions to online learning modes. However, online delivery should not jeopardise the outcome of students learning from interprofessional education (IPE) and should integrate students from different professional backgrounds closer. Objective: To identify the perception of medical and pharmacy students towards online IPE activity at Taylor’s University, Malaysia. Method: An online cross-sectional questionnaire was distributed to second and fourth-year students from the medical and pharmacy programmes. Students were considered to have a positive perception if their total score was above the median score. Result: More than half of the students (53.6%) showed positive perceptions towards the online IPE programme. Medical students had the highest percentage of students (54.9%) showing greater positive perceptions compared to pharmacy students (52.7%). Both health sciences students possessed the highest score on all the SPICE instrument’s domains. Conclusion: This discovery offers valuable insights into the interprofessional competency of students engaged in online IPE activities at their current academic level. It underscores the imperative of integrating online IPE activities into the curriculum design to equip students with the competence necessary for effective collaboration within an interprofessional team.

Background: Interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPE/IPC) are essential for preparing students to work together and respect the unique qualities and abilities of professionals. However, IPE/IPC are highly abstract phenomena and complicated to assess and measure. In consequence, a critical appraisal is needed to evaluate the quality of the instruments. Purpose: This study aimed to critically appraise, compare and summarize the quality of measurement properties of all self-report collaboration questionnaires for health professional students and to provide evidence concerning the psychometric properties of the measurement Methods: A psychometric review was employed, and the COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) approach was applied to assess the methodological quality of the nature of the measurements. Data search using keywords: health professional students, interprofessional, collaboration, teamwork, collaborative, through MEDLINE, EMBASE, and EBSCO-hosted Education Resource Information Center databases. Results: Seven instruments from 10 studies reviewed were identified. Among them, four instruments targeted attitudes toward collaboration. One instrument focused on students' collaborative learning readiness and had been tested in Hong Kong using English, in Iran using Persian, and in Indonesia using Bahasa Indonesia. One instrument measured perceptions about IPE, and two studies measured IPE/IPC competencies related to patient-centered, team-based, and collaborative care. The methodological quality assessment indicated that several instruments were less rigorously developed and validated than COSMIN and Quality Criteria of Measurement Properties recommend. Conclusions: The findings of this psychometric review additionally provide a strategy to select and develop the most appropriate instrument to assess IPE/IPC following their purpose, psychometric properties, and utility.

A Systematic Review of Assessment Tools Measuring Interprofessional Education Outcomes Relevant to Pharmacy Education