Enhancing Care Transitions for Older People through Interprofessional Simulation: A Mixed Method Evaluation

Introduction: The educational needs of the health and social care workforce for delivering effective integrated care are important. This paper reports on the development, pilot and evaluation of an interprofessional simulation course, which aimed to support integrated care models for care transitions for older people from hospital to home. Theory and methods: The course development was informed by a literature review and a scoping exercise with the health and social care workforce. The course ran six times and was attended by health and social care professionals from hospital and community (n=49). The evaluation aimed to elicit staff perceptions of their learning about care transfers of older people and to explore application of learning into practice and perceived outcomes. The study used a sequential mixed method design with questionnaires completed pre (n=44) and post (n=47) course and interviews (n=9) 2-5 months later. Results:Participants evaluated interprofessional simulation as a successful strategy. Post-course, participants identified learning points and at the interviews, similar themes with examples of application in practice were: Understanding individual needs and empathy; Communicating with patients and families; Interprofessional working; Working across settings to achieve effective care transitions. Conclusions and discussion:An interprofessional simulation course successfully brought together health and social care professionals across settings to develop integrated care skills and improve care transitions for older people with complex needs from hospital to home

The myth of patient centrality

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to critically examine the extent of patient centrality within integrated chronic back pain management services and compare policy rhetoric with practice reality. Context: Integrated chronic back pain management services. Data sources: We have drawn on theories of integration and context specific journals related to integration and pain management between 1966 and 2006 to identify evidence of patient centrality within integrated chronic pain management services. Discussions: Despite policy rhetoric and guidelines which promote patient centrality within multidisciplinary services, we argue that evaluations of these services are scant. Many papers have focused on the assessment of pain in multidisciplinary services as opposed to the patient’s experience of these services. Conclusions: A latent measure of the reality of its magnitude needs to be captured through analysis of the patient perspectives. Capturing patient’s thoughts about integrated services will promote patient centrality and support the reality rather than endorse the rhetoric

Situational Awareness Support to Enhance Teamwork in Collaborative Environments

Modern collaborative environments often provide an overwhelming amount of visual information on multiple displays. The multitude of personal and shared interaction devices leads to lack of awareness of team members on ongoing activities, and awareness of who is in control of shared artefacts. This research addresses the situational awareness (SA) support of multidisciplinary teams in co-located collaborative environments. This work aims at getting insights into design and evaluation of large displays systems that afford SA and effective teamwork

A Review of Best Practices for Monitoring and Improving Inpatient Pediatric Patient Experiences.

ContextAchieving high-quality patient-centered care requires assessing patient and family experiences to identify opportunities for improvement. With the Child Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems Survey, hospitals can assess performance and make national comparisons of inpatient pediatric experiences. However, using patient and family experience data to improve care remains a challenge.ObjectiveWe reviewed the literature on best practices for monitoring performance and undertaking activities aimed at improving pediatric patient and family experiences of inpatient care.Data sourcesWe searched PubMed, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, and PsychINFO.Study selectionWe included (1) English-language peer-reviewed articles published from January 2000 to April 2019; (2) articles based in the United States, United Kingdom, or Canada; (3) articles focused on pediatric inpatient care; (4) articles describing pediatric patient and family experiences; and (5) articles including content on activities aimed at improving patient and family experiences. Our review included 25 articles.Data extractionTwo researchers reviewed the full article and abstracted specific information: country, study aims, setting, design, methods, results, Quality Improvement (QI) initiatives performed, internal reporting description, best practices, lessons learned, barriers, facilitators and study implications for clinical practice, patient-experience data collection, and QI activities. We noted themes across samples and care settings.ResultsWe identified 10 themes of best practice. The 4 most common were (1) use evidence-based approaches, (2) maintain an internal system that communicates information and performance on patient and family experiences to staff and hospital leadership, (3) use experience survey data to initiate and/or evaluate QI interventions, and (4) identify optimal times (eg, discharge) and modes (eg, print) for obtaining patient and family feedback. These correspond to adult inpatient best practices.ConclusionsBoth pediatric and adult inpatient best practices rely on common principles of culture change (such as evidence-based clinical practice), collaborative learning, multidisciplinary teamwork, and building and/or supporting a QI infrastructure that requires time, money, collaboration, data tracking, and monitoring. QI best practices in both pediatric and adult inpatient settings commonly rely on identifying drivers of overall ratings of care, rewarding staff for successful implementation, and creating easy-to-use and easy-to-access planning and QI tools for staff

What fosters or prevents interprofessional teamworking in primary and community care? A literature review

Background: The increase in prevalence of long-term conditions in Western societies, with the subsequent need for non-acute quality patient healthcare, has brought the issue of collaboration between health professionals to the fore. Within primary care, it has been suggested that multidisciplinary teamworking is essential to develop an integrated approach to promoting and maintaining the health of the population whilst improving service effectiveness. Although it is becoming widely accepted that no single discipline can provide complete care for patients with a long-term condition, in practice, interprofessional working is not always achieved. Objectives: This review aimed to explore the factors that inhibit or facilitate interprofessional teamworking in primary and community care settings, in order to inform development of multidisciplinary working at the turn of the century. Design: A comprehensive search of the literature was undertaken using a variety of approaches to identify appropriate literature for inclusion in the study. The selected articles used both qualitative and quantitative research methods. Findings: Following a thematic analysis of the literature, two main themes emerged that had an impact on interprofessional teamworking: team structure and team processes. Within these two themes, six categories were identified: team premises; team size and composition; organisational support; team meetings; clear goals and objectives; and audit. The complex nature of interprofessional teamworking in primary care meant that despite teamwork being an efficient and productive way of achieving goals and results, several barriers exist that hinder its potential from becoming fully exploited; implications and recommendations for practice are discussed. Conclusions: These findings can inform development of current best practice, although further research needs to be conducted into multidisciplinary teamworking at both the team and organisation level, to ensure that enhancement and maintenance of teamwork leads to an improved quality of healthcare provision. © 2007 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Committed to Safety: Ten Case Studies on Reducing Harm to Patients

Presents case studies of healthcare organizations, clinical teams, and learning collaborations to illustrate successful innovations for improving patient safety nationwide. Includes actions taken, results achieved, lessons learned, and recommendations

Interdisciplinary Team Based Pastoral Care: A Potentially Adaptable Model for Estonian Healthcare

This article aims to build a potentially adaptable model of clinical pastoral care for Estonia’s healthcare institutions. To help the development of spiritual support provision in Estonian healthcare institutions, we are currently working on creating a model of clinical pastoral care that would be in accordance with the local circumstances. Preparatory research in the matter has addressed the socio-cultural and institutional context that shows the great need for interdisciplinary teamwork. The current article offers concrete proposals in the following main points: a) presentation of the pastoral caregiver; b) main actors; c) forms of cooperation; and c) education and internal trainings. The model construction draws information from international research and considers it in Estonia’s local context. Spiritual support provision in Estonia’s healthcare has not yet been taken for granted and the concept is not fully understood. Secularity and religious diversity also set complex frames. Therefore, the model is suggested in guiding proposals, not in a rigorous structure. As such, the model could also be useful for healthcare spiritual support developments in other countries with similar characteristics. The article also poses possible questions of the implementation potential of the model

Review and evaluation of the Inquiry to Implementation Project final report 2014

The inquiry based professional learning project, Inquiry to Implementation was developed by the Victorian Curriculum and Assessment Authority (VCAA) as a key professional learning resource to support implementation of the Victorian Early Years Learning and Development Framework (VEYLDF) For all Children Birth to Eight Years. The VCAA and the Department of Education and Training (DET) work together to support VEYLDF implementation. This review and evaluation report provides an account of early childhood professionals\u27 experience of inquiry based professional learning in multidisciplinary networks across Victoria. Drawing on project data and focus group interviews, in the Report, Monash University deliver research findings on key trends in assessment practice and network relationships and engagement: changes in practice are described for individual practitioners, service types and the nine networks involved in the Inquiry to Implementation Project four dominant themes are identified across all networks and a further seven which are evident for particular networks case studies profile the contribution each of the nine networks and highlight the unique nature, trends in practice over time, evidence of participants learning, promising practices, key successes and barriers along with overarching themes a relational agency framework provides a model that can be used to describe practitioner experiences and professional relationships in networks. Monash University researchers developed the framework as a tool to support growth in inquiry based professional learning at the level of a multidisciplinary network. This report draws out learning from the networks that all early childhood professionals, policy makers and researchers will find useful in building assessment practice and research to support learning and development outcomes for children. &nbsp

Curriculum renewal for interprofessional education in health

In this preface we comment on four matters that we think bode well for the future of interprofessional education in Australia. First, there is a growing articulation, nationally and globally, as to the importance of interprofessional education and its contribution to the development of interprofessional and collaborative health practices. These practices are increasingly recognised as central to delivering effective, efficient, safe and sustainable health services. Second, there is a rapidly growing interest and institutional engagement with interprofessional education as part of pre-registration health professional education. This has changed substantially in recent years. Whilst beyond the scope of our current studies, the need for similar developments in continuing professional development (CPD) for health professionals was a consistent topic in our stakeholder consultations. Third, we observe what might be termed a threshold effect occurring in the area of interprofessional education. Projects that address matters relating to IPE are now far more numerous, visible and discussed in terms of their aggregate outcomes. The impact of this momentum is visible across the higher education sector. Finally, we believe that effective collaboration is a critical mediating process through which the rich resources of disciplinary knowledge and capability are joined to add value to existing health service provision. We trust the conceptual and practical contributions and resources presented and discussed in this report contribute to these developments.Office of Learning and Teaching Australi