Using Give–Get Grids to Evaluate Community-Engaged Interprofessional Education Partnerships

Background: The perspectives of community partners about their experiences working with medical students and how service-learning experiences affect the communities they serve remains understudied. Objective: This study addressed gaps in the literature by reporting on in-depth interviews conducted with community partners who participated in a well-established medical school service-learning programme. Design: A qualitative study was undertaken using semi-structured interviews and an edited coding strategy. Setting: A convenience sample was recruited from a database of organisations working with the medical school’s service-learning organisation. Method: Between 2017 and 2020, the researchers conducted semi-structured interviews with community-based organisation partners who worked with medical students through a service-learning initiative in an urban, underserved area of New Jersey, USA. The authors coded transcripts and identified themes after extensive reading, reflection and team discussion of transcripts and coded text. Authors confirmed thematic saturation after 20 interviews with 21 participants representing 18 different agencies. Results: Three main themes were developed: (1) medical students as role models, (2) community partners’ role in shaping medical student education, and (3) reciprocity between community-based organisations and the service-learning programme. Participants found that medical students connected well with young clients and motivated them to pursue higher education or healthcare careers especially when they had a shared ethnic or cultural background. Community partners helped medical students better understand ethnically and socioeconomically diverse communities from a whole-person perspective. Participants described collaborative learning and reciprocity between the service-learning programme and community-based organisations as a ‘win-win’ situation – with clients, the organisation and medical students all benefitting. Conclusion: Findings illustrate the importance of reciprocity between medical students and community partners. Incorporating partners in the design and evaluation of service-learning programmes is essential to understanding how community and academic health centres can better collaborate to promote health equity.

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) strives for equitable collaboration among community and academic partners throughout the research process. To build the capacity of academia to function as effective research partners with communities, the North Carolina Translational and Clinical Sciences Institute (NC TraCS), home of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC-CH)'s Clinical and Translational Sciences Award (CTSA), developed a community engagement consulting model. This new model harnesses the expertise of community partners with CBPR experience and compensates them equitably to provide technical assistance to community-academic research partnerships. This paper describes approaches to valuing community expertise, the importance of equitable compensation for community partners, the impact on the community partners, opportunities for institutional change, and the constraints faced in model implementation. Community Experts (CEs) are independent contractor consultants. CEs were interviewed to evaluate their satisfaction with their engagement and compensation for their work. (1) CEs have knowledge, power, and credibility to push for systems change. (2) Changes were needed within the university to facilitate successful consultation to community-academic partnerships. (3) Sustaining the CE role requires staff support, continued compensation, increased opportunities for engagement, and careful consideration of position demands. (4) The role provides benefits beyond financial compensation. (5) Opportunities to gather deepened relationships within the partnership and built collective knowledge that strengthened the project. Leveraging CE expertise and compensating them for their role benefits both university and community. Creating a place for community expertise within academia is an important step toward equitably including the community in research.

BACKGROUND Interprofessional education (IPE) is essential in healthcare training, fostering teamwork and communication skills critical for addressing complex patient care needs. Developing interprofessional competency involves knowledge acquisition, teamwork readiness, and effective collaboration. However, IPE faces challenges such as geographical barriers and faculty resistance. Innovative solutions like serious games using immersive virtual reality (IVR) and web-based platforms aim to enhance engagement and collaboration. Research comparing their effects on IPE outcomes remains limited. OBJECTIVE To identify the most effective method for implementing IPE by assessing the impact of IVR and web-based serious games on healthcare students' interprofessional competencies and learning experiences. METHODS A multi-method approach was adopted. which included pre- and post-learning assessments, knowledge-checking games, and focus group interviews to assess competency improvements and identify qualitative differences between IVR and web-based serious gaming platforms. A convenience sample consisting of 203 nursing students and 68 physiotherapy students was selected, creating 34 interprofessional groups. These groups were randomly allocated to either IVR (17 groups) or web-based training (17 groups) and underwent a crossover design, utilizing each modality for one week before transitioning. Surveys were administered to all students regarding their learning experiences, and four focus group discussions were held with 34 consenting participants (22 nursing and 12 physiotherapy students) to collect qualitative insights. All the participants filled the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS), the Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS), the Intrinsic Motivation Inventory (IMI) questionnaire and answered Multiple choice questions (MCQs). RESULTS The IVR group showed significant improvements in the Brief Sense of Community Scale (BSCS) and emotional connection (p=0.00). The web-based group demonstrated enhancements in community perception (p=0.00) and intrinsic motivation (p=0.04). Both groups significantly improved in multiple-choice question (MCQ) scores (p=0.00). Web-based group demonstrated significant improvements in MCQs compared with IVR group (p=0.00). No significant differences were found in the Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) scores for both groups. CONCLUSIONS Web-based games provided greater knowledge clarity and participant engagement than IVR. In both methods, community and knowledge growth were fostered, emphasizing the importance of stimulating learning environments to enhance educational outcomes.

The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of a peer-taught interprofessional education (IPE) activity on pharmacy and physician assistant (PA) student self-assessed confidence and attitudes related to professional skills. First-year pharmacy (n = 210) and PA (n = 45) students participated in a two-hour IPE activity. Forty-five teams consisting of one PA and at least four pharmacy students completed three peer-teaching stations focused on diabetes device education, pulmonary device teaching/case workup, and physical assessment skills. Students completed a pre- and post-activity confidence survey and a post-activity attitudes survey. For pharmacy students, highest confidence gains were noted on the items related to performing a physical exam. For PA students, largest gains were noted on the items related to insulin delivery systems. Eighty-three percent of students either agreed or strongly agreed with the statement “I learned things during this IPE activity that I will implement in clinical practice.” Seventy six percent of students felt that the physical assessment station was “beneficial or very beneficial” to their learning. A vast majority of students noted the IPE activity “somewhat or definitely” enhanced their communication with other health professionals and promoted a climate of mutual respect. In conclusion, peer teaching improved student attitudes and confidence.

This chapter will review ethical issues relevant to various approaches to engaging different stakeholder communities in biomedical, public health, and social science research. The chapter will provide a history of community and patient stakeholder engagement in research, explicate the ethical basis for engaging communities in research, provide an overview of the unique ethical issues and challenges that arise in academic–community partnerships, and outline the obligations of academic and community partners as well as best practices for ensuring protection of research participants in community-engaged research. To illustrate these issues, examples will be provided from across a variety of approaches, disciplines, and settings.

Healthcare reform has led to the consideration of interprofessional team-based, collaborative care as a way to provide comprehensive, high-quality care to patients and families. Interprofessional education is the mechanism by which the next generation health professional workforce is preparing for the future of health care-team-based, collaborative care. This literature review explored the extent and content of published studies documenting Interprofessional Education (IPE) activities with psychology trainees across learner level. A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted of studies describing IPE involving psychology learners. Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and EMBASE) were searched for the following terms: inter/multi-professional education/practice, inter/multidisciplinary education/practice, and psychology/psychologists. Thirty-seven articles were identified that included psychology in clinical outcome studies or other reviews of interprofessional education initiatives. The review addresses the nature of current IPE learning activities, the impact of IPE activities on participating trainees, opportunities for, and challenges of, involving psychology trainees in IPE, and future directions for research. This review illuminates the relative paucity of the literature about IPE in psychology training. Given the trend toward increasing team-based collaborative care, the limited inclusion of psychology in the IPE literature is concerning. The next generation of health professional trainees is learning about, from, and with each other with the objective of building collaboration and teamwork. Given the few articles documenting psychology trainees' involvement in IPE, future health professionals quite possibly will have limited understanding of, and contact with, psychologists. Our findings are a call to action for greater psychology involvement in IPE.

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

Background: In health and social care (HASC) professional education, interprofessional competencies are optimally developed by engaging in interprofessional education (IPE) activities that are delivered sustainably along a continuum. Ultimately, active engagement in IPE is meant to prepare future practitioners for interprofessional collaborative practice (IPCP), which leads to improved patient/client and community-oriented outcomes. Methods and Findings: This qualitative case study explores how four Canadian post-secondary institutions deliver IPE within their HASC professional education programmatic structures. Data were collected from institutional websites, publicly available IPE relevant records and documents, and interviews with coordinators and faculty/facilitators of IPE curriculum. Data were inductively analyzed to generate relevant themes, followed by a deductive analysis guided by the five accreditation standards domains identified in the Accreditation of Interprofessional Health Education (AIPHE) projects. Analyses of the data resulted in five attributes: 1) central administrative unit, 2) longitudinal and integrative program, 3) theoretically informed curriculum design, 4) student-centred pedagogy, and 5) patient/client-oriented approach. Conclusions: Using these attributes and guided by AIPHE’s accreditation standards domains, an organizational-curricular model for sustainable IPE is proposed, through which we assert that IPE reinforced through these organizational and curricular supports reflects successful programming, leading to patient/client-oriented outcomes.

Reducing health provider stereotypes through undergraduate interprofessional education

The world-renowned resources of Johns Hopkins Hospital (JHH) in Baltimore, Maryland, stand in marked contrast with the surrounding impoverished neighborhoods. Community-based organizations (CBOs) are critical frontline responders to residents' needs. Baltimore CONNECT, an academic-community partnership, co-developed an intervention to strengthen connections between CBOs and between CBOs and the health care system. To understand how members of an academic- community partnership define the act of "co-development" and share perceptions of barriers, facilitators, and ways to measure it. We conducted semistructured interviews with 15 community partners, academic partners, and external stakeholders. Partners conceptualized co-development as a fluid and evolving process that is the outcome of shared decision making. This exploration revealed nuances within partnership dynamics, including motivations for participation, underlying incentives, partnership equality, balance of power, and trust and relation building. We present insights that can be used by academic researchers and community leaders looking to co-develop interventions to improve health in urban communities domestically and internationally.JHH in Baltimore, Maryland, is one of the most highly regarded hospitals in the United States. However, its institutional resources stand in marked contrast with those available to the impoverished neighborhoods that surround it. Many have called for JHH to play a greater role in the surrounding community, where it serves as a leading source of health care.

Background Research suggests that schools’ capacity to successfully implement and sustain reform programs may rest, in part, with district-level facilitation. The importance of district leadership has been established for a variety of educational reforms, including school, family, and community partnerships. However, few studies have been conducted to understand how successful district leaders implement and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as an educational reform. Focus of Study This case study seeks to fill this gap. It describes leadership strategies employed by the office of parent involvement in an urban school district in the United States. More specifically, this article focuses on the collaborative relationship between the office of parent involvement and a community-based parent involvement organization (CPIO). Research Design The study employed a multiple case study design, which included interviews with district, school, and parent leaders; observations of workshops, meetings, presentations, and other work-related activities of key district-level respondents; document collection and review; and school site visits. Findings Analyses suggest that the collaboration between the district's office of parent involvement and the CPIO has helped to support and sustain school, family, and community partnerships as a reform initiative for nearly a decade. The relationship has resulted in (1) complementary parent leadership training for school-based partnership teams, (2) joint planning and implementation of districtwide partnership activities, and (3) community advocacy for district partnership personnel and resources.

Exploring Early-Learner Discoveries and Impacts Through Thematic Coding of Qualitative Reflections to Interprofessional Competencies.

Geisinger Commonwealth School of Medicine.

Studies have provided evidence that Interprofessional Education (IPE) can improve learners’ attitudes, knowledge, skills, behaviors, and competency. Traditionally, IPE is commonly seen in the healthcare professional training in tertiary education. Aging is a global issue that requires more than just a single healthcare sector. It requires interdisciplinary collaboration and understanding to tackle the issues. Therefore, IPE is essential for nurturing university students to tackle the ever-changing global challenges. In addition, different hurdles can hinder IPE development. To have a better understanding of the feasibility, acceptance, and educational value of IPE in Hong Kong, we conducted a cross-sectional quantitative study. We invited teachers and students from a Hong Kong university to fill in an online survey that evaluated their understanding and participation in IPE, their attitude toward IPE, and the barriers to developing IPE from March to June 2020. Among the 37 academic staff and 572 students who completed the survey, 20 (54.1%) teachers and 422 (73.8%) students had never heard of IPE before, and 26 (70.3%) teachers and 510 (89.2%) students had never participated in any IPE activities. Major barriers reported by teachers included an increase in teaching load (72.9%), lack of administrative support (72.9%), lack of financial support and limited budget (67.5%), difficulty to make logistic arrangements (64.8%), and problems with academic schedules and calendars (62.1%). The survey findings revealed that despite the positive attitude of university teachers and students toward IPE, barriers that could hinder the development of IPE included heavy teaching and administrative load and logistic arrangement for classroom arrangement and academic scheduling involving multiple faculties.

Community-academic partnerships (CAPs) in public health are increasingly utilized to integrate community voice into decision-making processes of health-related interventions, programs, and practice. However, community partners' collaboration experiences remain understated in the literature. Thus, there is a need to further advance methodological approaches that examine the effectiveness of CAPs, while also highlighting community voice to, ultimately, improve public health outcomes. (1) To demonstrate how a practical approach to mixed methods social network analysis (MMSNA) can highlight power dynamics in community health partnerships and use MMSNA data to build relationships across stake-holders for systems change effortsMethods: MMSNA was used to examine a CAP focused on public health equity in a Midwest region. The project applied a sequential mixed methods design (QUAN → QUAL) with a network survey and individual semi-structured interviews. Both data strands served the function of expansion, where quantitative data identified what relationships existed in the network, level of activity, and factors for motivations, providing breadth of collaboration. Qualitative data further elaborated on how partners perceived these experiences, providing depth and contextualizing quantitative results. Systems level approaches must be applied to capture broader contexts (e.g., community, interpersonal, and individual) surrounding community health partnerships. The use of MMSNA maximizes benefits from a systems methodology-social network analysis-with qualitative interviews that allow for the critical assessment of network structure and community centered perspectives. Community health partnerships are encouraged to utilize this approach in order to deliver more sustainable public health efforts centered on the community that is directly impacted.