Teach More about Teams: A Clinician-Educator Development Program to Promote Interprofessional Education for Learners
Interprofessional education (IPE) is a major priority for health professions education programs preparing learners to be members in the team-based model of health care delivery (Stone, 2010). Despite several years of IPE research efforts across the health professions, a recent Cochrane review concluded that there are a low number of well-designed IPE studies and the learning outcomes have been mixed (Reeves, Perrior, Goldman, Freeth, & Zwarenstein, 2013). Although the study of IPE has focused more on educational activities in the context of classrooms and simulations, clinical settings have been recognized as ideal for students’ development of interprofessional attitudes and competencies (Thistlethwaite, 2012). Duke Health is an academic medical center and health system with several undergraduate, graduate, and postgraduate health professions education programs within its School of Medicine and School of Nursing. Interprofessional education and practice (IPEP) efforts have been increasingly prioritized for several years and are now part of Duke Health’s strategic plan to “dramatically increase interprofessional education, research and practice” (Duke Health, 2016, p. 13). Most formal IPE occurs in classroom settings, such as the IPE primer in which all health professions students participate during the first few months of their respective programs. IPE initiatives have been piloted in some clinical settings, such as interdisciplinary rounds and quality improvement projects. Clinical preceptors of Duke physician assistant students have reported significant numbers of interprofessional interactions between both students and health professionals across a variety clinical settings (Hudak & Melcher, 2016). In a follow-up qualitative study (Hudak, Melcher, & Strand de Oliveira, 2017), a major theme of interviews with clinical preceptors revealed various strategies that preceptors utilize to promote IPE in clinical settings, such as involving students on the team, making introductions, and role-modeling effective team communication. While Duke health professions students must obtain team communication skills during their education, their clinical supervisors do not routinely receive standardized training to facilitate and evaluate development of these skills. A recent IPE practice guideline for interprofessional teaching concludes that “faculty development to enhance existing skills is desirable and should combine a hands-on workshop with demonstration and feedback involving different professions” (Lie, Forest, Kysh, & Sinclair, 2016, p. 328). Another IPE practice guideline recognizes the need to “link IPE faculty development efforts with practicing interprofessional care teams” (Hall & Zierler, 2015, p. 6). Based upon these recommendations and the gap in formal IPE training opportunities at Duke, we propose establishing a continuing professional development program for clinical preceptors who supervise health professions learners. Through this program, we aim to equip clinical preceptors with knowledge, skills,and attitudes to more effectively facilitate IPE in clinical settings. This program would foster development of rich interprofessional relationships among the interprofessional participants enrolled in the program. We plan to use this pilot program to revise and scale future similar initiatives to reach a greater number of clinical preceptors in the future.
- 2018