Interprofessional Teamwork Skills as Predictors of Clinical Outcomes in a Simulated Healthcare Setting

This is the published version. Copyright 2013 Journal of Allied Health.Teaching interprofessional teamwork skills is a goal of interprofessional education. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between IP teamwork skills, attitudes and clinical outcomes in a simulated clinical setting. METHODS: One hundred-twenty health professions students (medicine, pharmacy, physician assistant) worked in interprofessional teams to manage a “patient” in a health care simulation setting. Students completed the Interdisciplinary Education Perception Scale (IEPS) attitudinal survey instrument. Students’ responses were averaged by team to create an IEPS attitudes score. Teamwork skills for each team were rated by trained observers using a checklist to calculate a teamwork score (TWS). Clinical outcome scores (COS) were determined by summation of completed clinical tasks performed by the team based on an expert developed checklist. Regression analyses were conducted to determine the relationship of IEPS and TWS with COS. RESULTS: IEPS score was not a significant predictor of COS (p=0.054), but TWS was a significant predictor (p< 0.001) of COS. Results suggest that in a simulated clinical setting, students’ interprofessional teamwork skills are significant predictors of positive clinical outcomes. CONCLUSION: Interprofessional curricular models that produce effective teamwork skills can improve student performance in clinical environments and likely improve teamwork practice to positively affect patient care outcomes

Assessing Student Attitudes as a Result of Participating in an Interprofessional Healthcare Elective Associated with a Student-Run Free Clinic

Background: An interprofessional elective using a student-run clinic can introduce students to professional roles, collaborative patient care, and health disparities. Methods and Findings: Students from four professions (pharmacy, medicine, physician assistant, and physical therapy) participated in a service-learning elective where they received weekly didactic lectures and provided healthcare in a student-run free clinic. Additional interprofessional activities included a quality improvement project and a case presentation. Students were administered anonymous surveys before and after the elective to assess changes in their attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork. A total of 93 and 74 students completed the pre-survey and post-survey, respectively. After participating in the elective, significantly more students reported working in interprofessional teams and understood the role of physician assistants. The majority of other attitudes about interprofessional collaboration and professional roles were sustained or improved after the elective.Conclusion: An interprofessional service-learning elective using didactic and experiential learning in an interprofessional, student-run free clinic sustained or improved student attitudes toward interprofessional teamwork. The elective had a significant impact on increased student experience working in interprofessional healthcare teams and increased understanding of health professions’ roles. Continued assessment of the impact on student behaviours and patient outcomes is warranted

Creating an Online Interprofessional Collaborative Team Simulation to Overcome Common Barriers of Interprofessional Education

Introduction: Coordinating student schedules, physical space, and faculty time are commonly reported barriers to successful interprofessional education. Use of online technologies to overcome these barriers and support online team simulation is a topic that deserves serious academic review. Methods: The Interprofessional Plan of Care - Simulated E-hEalth Delivery System (IPOC-SEEDS) is a student-directed online simulation where students experience a collaborative plan of care meeting with simultaneous team electronic health record utilization. The authors describe the IPOC-SEEDS simulation to serve as a model for replication or modification. IPOC-SEEDS objectives address Interprofessional Education Collaborative competencies (IPEC), electronic health record (EHR) navigation, simulation effectiveness, and technology utilization. Results: Overall, IPOC-SEEDS objectives were effectively met through simulation evaluations, student-led debriefing evaluations, in-person student feedback, and faculty feedback results supporting the online simulation and technology evolutions. The objectives, based on IPEC and informatics competencies, were achieved. Students from nursing, nutrition, pharmacy, occupational therapy, and health information management participated in the simulation using EHR and online meeting software, receiving valuable interprofessional practice. Technology utilization results were adequate, but did improve in subsequent simulations after modifying the technology selected. Discussion: The simulation provided an experience where students demonstrated interprofessional collaborative skills that they can use in their future practice. Online technologies can provide a platform for the high-quality interprofessional simulation to address common interprofessional education barriers and provide access to interprofessional education for distance-learning students and providers. Online simulation developers (hospitals, health departments, universities) can use the authors’ process steps as a model for online simulation replication

Report of the 2019-2020 strategic engagement standing committee

© 2020, American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy. All rights reserved. For the American Association of Colleges of Pharmacy (AACP) strategic engagement is critical to the success of colleges and schools of pharmacy in expanding pharmacy and public health practice, meeting programmatic needs, and fulfilling institutional missions. The 2019-2020 Strategic Engagement Committee was charged with exploring the collaborative relationships colleges and schools have within their state to advance pharmacy practice. More specifically, this committee was tasked to examine those relationships with current state pharmacy and medical associations. This report seeks to provide insights from this work and share recommendations to assist AACP in facilitating practice transformation. To uncover current schools’ relationships with state and medical associations, the committee utilized AACP’s ability in convening members to conduct focus groups at INsight 2020 and one-on-one interviews with key faculty members. Overall, partnerships with state pharmacy associations are successful or growing, whereas there is still work to be done in developing relationships and collaborating with medical and health care societies. We found that there are several schools with “best practices” related to state association collaborations and look to highlight exemplar practices in this report as they are critical towards practice transformations

Pharmacy Strategic Approaches for IPE Assessment

Purpose: The main goal of this presentation is to share pharmacy-specific strategies for assessing the structure, process, and outcomes of IPE programs. Background: An effective assessment plan includes evaluating each component of the IPE model: Structure, Process, and Outcomes. The structure of IPE contains curriculum, facilities, capacity, and technology. The process encompasses development of faculty/preceptors, in addition to engaging students, patients, and collaborative practices. And the outcomes comprise achieving the educational and clinical goals of an IPE program and meeting its vision and mission. There is a need to provide this critical information in a succinct format as a variety of accrediting bodies are expecting discipline specific assessment of IPE. Description of Intervention: Noting that a sound assessment plan should be developed prior to implementing interprofessional education (IPE) programs, the presenters will share successful strategies for evaluating students’ participation and patients’ engagement as partners in developing their care plans. Following a thorough literature review, examples of current tools used to assess the quality of educational and clinical outcomes of IPE programs will be presented. Results: Key IPE assessment tools have been identified and categorized based on the major components of the Kirkpatrick Evaluation Model: (1) reaction; (2a) attitude modification; (2b) knowledge and skill acquisition; (3) behavioral change; (4) change in organizational practice. These tools will be presented relative to their applicability to pharmacy education. Conclusions: It is vital for administrators and faculty to ensure that the mission, goals, and educational, behavioral, and clinical outcomes of IPE programs are met. Improvement initiatives must continually assess the quality of IPE programs. Relevance to interprofessional education or practice: The strategy used to identify and categorize assessment tools can be applied to other healthcare disciplines delivering IPE. These tools, relative to the Kirkpatrick evaluation model, map the specific learning objectives to the educational endeavors. Learning Objectives: 1. Describe a process for identifying assessment tools to utilize in the development of a programmatic IPE assessment plan. 2. Identify how utilizing the various assessment tools, per the Kirkpatrick evaluation model, can be applied to a programmatic curricular map. 3. Summarize “lessons learned” in assessing IPE in various pharmacy curricul

INSTRUCTIONAL DESIGN AND ASSESSMENT A Simulated Interprofessional Rounding Experience in a Clinical Assessment Course

Objective. To implement a simulated interprofessional rounding experience using human patient simulators as a required activity for third-year pharmacy students in a clinical assessment course. Design. Interprofessional student teams consisting of pharmacy, medical, and physician assistant students participated in a simulated interprofessional rounding experience in which they provided comprehensive medical care for a simulated patient in an inpatient setting. Assessment. Students completed a survey instrument to assess interprofessional attitudes and satisfaction before and after participation in the simulated interprofessional rounding experience. Overall student attitudes regarding interprofessional teamwork and communication significantly improved; student satisfaction with the experience was high and students&apos; self-perceived clinical confidence improved after participation. The mean team clinical performance scores were 65% and 75% for each simulated interprofessional rounding experience. Conclusion. Incorporating a simulated interprofessional rounding experience into a required clinical assessment course improved student attitudes regarding interprofessional teamwork and was associated with high student satisfaction

Consistent Directions of Effect for Established Type 2 Diabetes Risk Variants Across Populations: The Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology (PAGE) Consortium

Common genetic risk variants for type 2 diabetes (T2D) have primarily been identified in populations of European and Asian ancestry. We tested whether the direction of association with 20 T2D risk variants generalizes across six major racial/ethnic groups in the U.S. as part of the Population Architecture using Genomics and Epidemiology Consortium (16,235 diabetes case and 46,122 control subjects of European American, African American, Hispanic, East Asian, American Indian, and Native Hawaiian ancestry). The percentage of positive (odds ratio [OR] >1 for putative risk allele) associations ranged from 69% in American Indians to 100% in European Americans. Of the nine variants where we observed significant heterogeneity of effect by racial/ethnic group (Pheterogeneity 1) in at least five groups. The marked directional consistency of association observed for most genetic variants across populations implies a shared functional common variant in each region. Fine-mapping of all loci will be required to reveal markers of risk that are important within and across populations

New genetic loci implicated in fasting glucose homeostasis and their impact on type 2 diabetes risk.

Levels of circulating glucose are tightly regulated. To identify new loci influencing glycemic traits, we performed meta-analyses of 21 genome-wide association studies informative for fasting glucose, fasting insulin and indices of beta-cell function (HOMA-B) and insulin resistance (HOMA-IR) in up to 46,186 nondiabetic participants. Follow-up of 25 loci in up to 76,558 additional subjects identified 16 loci associated with fasting glucose and HOMA-B and two loci associated with fasting insulin and HOMA-IR. These include nine loci newly associated with fasting glucose (in or near ADCY5, MADD, ADRA2A, CRY2, FADS1, GLIS3, SLC2A2, PROX1 and C2CD4B) and one influencing fasting insulin and HOMA-IR (near IGF1). We also demonstrated association of ADCY5, PROX1, GCK, GCKR and DGKB-TMEM195 with type 2 diabetes. Within these loci, likely biological candidate genes influence signal transduction, cell proliferation, development, glucose-sensing and circadian regulation. Our results demonstrate that genetic studies of glycemic traits can identify type 2 diabetes risk loci, as well as loci containing gene variants that are associated with a modest elevation in glucose levels but are not associated with overt diabetes

All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory: Exploring the Extreme Multimessenger Universe

The All-sky Medium Energy Gamma-ray Observatory (AMEGO) is a probe class mission concept that will provide essential contributions to multimessenger astrophysics in the late 2020s and beyond. AMEGO combines high sensitivity in the 200 keV to 10 GeV energy range with a wide field of view, good spectral resolution, and polarization sensitivity. Therefore, AMEGO is key in the study of multimessenger astrophysical objects that have unique signatures in the gamma-ray regime, such as neutron star mergers, supernovae, and flaring active galactic nuclei. The order-of-magnitude improvement compared to previous MeV missions also enables discoveries of a wide range of phenomena whose energy output peaks in the relatively unexplored medium-energy gamma-ray band