Interprofessional Collaboration Among Complementary And Integrative Health Providers In Private Practice And Community Health Centers

Background: The current healthcare environment is placing increasing emphasis on interprofessional collaboration (IPC). IPC may be of particular importance to complementary and integrative health (CIH) providers who have historically practiced in silos. The extent to which these providers are collaborating with each other and with other providers is not known. Purpose: Investigate aspects of IPC occurring in a sample of CIH providers. Method: A qualitative health services study using semi-structured interviews. Discussion: CIH providers were found to be collaborating with each other and other providers. Subjects indicated IPC had a positive impact on practice and on patient care. Educating students and practitioners about other health disciplines was seen as being key to collaboration between professions, as was being able to communicate using terms others could understand. Conclusions: Results of this study can contribute to broadening the scope of IPC, improve clinical outcomes, improve efficiency for healthcare systems, and may be useful to institutions engaged in training CIH providers in development of curricular content.https://doi.org/10.1016/j.xjep.2019.02.00

Defining antimicrobial stewardship competencies for undergraduate health professional education in the United Kingdom: a study protocol

Multi-drug resistant infections have been identified as one of the greatest threats to human health. Healthcare professionals are involved in an array of patient care activities for which an understanding of antimicrobial stewardship is important. Although antimicrobial prescribing and stewardship competencies have been developed for healthcare professionals who adopt the role of a prescriber, competencies do not exist for other medicine-related stewardship activities. Undergraduate education provides an ideal opportunity to prepare healthcare professionals for these roles and activities. This report presents a protocol for a study designed to provide national consensus on antimicrobial stewardship competencies appropriate for undergraduate healthcare professional education. A modified Delphi process will be used in which a panel of Experts, comprising members from across the United Kingdom, with expertise in prescribing and medicines management with regard to the education and practice of healthcare professionals, and antimicrobial prescribing and stewardship, will be invited to take part in two survey rounds. The competencies developed will be applicable to all undergraduate healthcare professional education programmes. They will help to standardise curricula content and enhance the impact of antimicrobial stewardship education

Contributions of team climate in the study of interprofessional collaboration: a conceptual analysis

The concept of team climate is widely used to understand and evaluate working environments. It shares some important features with Interprofessional Collaboration (IPC). The four-factor theory of climate for work group innovation, which underpins team climate, could provide a better basis for understanding both teamwork and IPC. This article examines in detail the common ground between team climate and IPC, and assesses the relevance of team climate as a theoretical approach to understanding IPC. There are important potential areas of overlap between team climate and IPC that we have grouped under four headings: (1) interaction and communication between team members; (2) common objectives around which collective work is organised; (3) responsibility for performing work to a high standard; and (4) promoting innovation in working practices. These overlapping areas suggest common characteristics that could provide elements of a framework for considering the contribution of team climate to collaborative working, both from a conceptual perspective and, potentially, in operational terms as, for example, a diagnostic tool

University teachers’ views of interprofessional learning and their role in achieving outcomes - a qualitative study

Over the past decade, there has been a rapid increase in higher education institutions offering opportunities for interprofessional learning (IPL) to their students. The literature presents a number of factors that contribute to effective IPL, including having trained facilitators that help optimise the learning process. Many of these IPL facilitators are university teachers and the literature provides us with some insight into their views of IPL. However, little is known about university teachers’ views about IPL and their role in supporting students in achieving outcomes linked to IPL during their own teaching; this paper explores these areas. University teachers, working with students in Norway and England who contribute to patients’ care pathway were purposively invited to join focus groups. Data collected from the teachers’ conversations during these focus groups were analysed to elicit the main themes. Findings show that university teachers have a wide range of views about IPL, its potential to enhance collaborative practice and care, and their role in helping students achieve outcomes linked to IPL. A key challenge appears to be whether IPL is “worth the struggle,” which emphasises the need for strong leadership in order to align pedagogical approaches in education and practice that strive to achieve agreed outcomes

Interprofessional team-based placements: The importance of space, place, and facilitation.

Interprofessional education in practice settings typically requires greater resource investment than in the classroom or online. Increased interest in return on investment means research on the outcomes of practice-based interprofessional education is needed. In this article, we report findings from a qualitative study involving a series of focus groups with health sciences' students during their interprofessional placements in three community health settings in Western Australia. An exploratory case study approach was adopted to determine students' perceptions of the placement and their learning. The presage-process-product (3P) model of learning and teaching was employed to illuminate to the nature of this interprofessional education experience. Verbatim transcripts were analysed by two researchers using an inductive approach to derive key themes. Findings illuminate a number of factors that strongly influenced student perceptions of their learning in interprofessional practice-based placements including a dedicated space to collaborate and learn; exposure to a wide range of professions in practice settings; the approach of the facilitators; and students' previous clinical experience, year level and the timing of the placement. Students reported that the placement enhanced their knowledge, professional communication, leadership, understanding of other health professions and collaboration. This study provides contemporary insight into key factors that influence student learning during practice-based interprofessional placements

New national curricula guidelines that support the use of interprofessional education in Brazilian context : an analysis of key documents

The National Curricular Guidelines (NCGs) are important documents for understanding the history of academic health professions education in Brazil. Key policies within the NCGs have helped to re-orient health professions education and have stimulated curricular changes, including active learning methodologies, more integrated teaching-service environments and, more recently, have introduced interprofessional education (IPE) in both undergraduate and postgraduate sectors. This paper presents the findings of a study that examined the NCGs for nursing, dentistry and medicine courses as juridical foundations for adopting strategies that promote IPE across higher education institutions in Brazil. We employed a comparative and exploratory documentary analysis to understand the role of IPE or collaborative practices in NCGs for the three largest professions in Brazil. Following a thematic analysis of these texts, four key themes emerged: faculty development; competencies for teamwork; curricular structure; and learning metrics. Key findings related to each of these themes are presented and discussed in relation to the wider interprofessional literature. The paper goes on to argue that the statements contained in the NCGs about adoption of IPE and collaborative practices will have an important influence in shaping the future of health professions education in Brazil