Interprofessional Education in Graduate School Curricula

Brandon Eddy

1/17/2017 10:23 PM

According to the American Speech-Language Hearing Association May 2016 Interprofessional Practice Survey, 89% of SLPs indicated that they have worked in an interprofessional collaborative practice. However, 71% of all respondents indicated that they received no formal education or training in this skill/area. With such a significant majority of practicing SLPs engaging in interprofessional activities on a regular basis, it is clear that more formal training in interprofessional education would be beneficial to improve readiness to engage in interdisciplinary teamwork and ultimately improve client outcomes. Did you receive formal training during your graduate education on team practice?

In my second year as a graduate student clinician, I had the privilege to be accepted in the Iowa Leadership Education in Neurodevelopmental and related Disabilities (LEND program), and had my first experience with a Social Worker. Leah, at that time a LEND Social Work trainee, was one of the most influential trainees I had the chance to work with. Unfortunately for Leah, I had no idea what Social Work involved or how her work could apply to the clients I was working with in speech-language pathology. That quickly changed as I began to work with Leah in clinics and LEND seminar courses; Leah demonstrated how she assessed families’ support networks, settings, strengths, and needs, identified local and community resources to support the families, and closely followed families to ensure progress. My experience working with Leah was incredibly valuable to my development as a speech language pathologist, and I believe everyone should be allowed these opportunities.

Graduate programs can provide an excellent foundation for students in the techniques of interdisciplinary teamwork. Interprofessional education provides students the opportunity to learn how their profession integrates within the larger interdisciplinary team, and sets the precedent that interdisciplinary teamwork is a standard rather than an ideal. Unfortunately, several barriers stand in the way of integrating interprofessional education within graduate programs.

Perhaps the most significant challenge faced by graduate programs is the amount of information packed within graduate curricula and overwhelming licensing criteria. For speech-language pathologists, this is in part due to the large scope of practice and generalist training which programs are charged with teaching. The amount of information graduate programs need to teach, and students need to learn leaves little flexibility for adjustments to the coursework.

Dudding, Hulton, & Stewart (November, 2016) discussed different levels of clinical experience among different professions as a barrier to interprofessional education. For example, graduate interdisciplinary teams may include a combination of returning professionals seeking advanced degrees (e.g., Master’s of Nursing) as well as students seeking their first degree with varying levels of clinical experience (e.g., fourth year Counseling Psychology students, second year Speech-Language Pathology students, and fourth year Physical Therapy students). Further, Bird & Kusior (2016) implied that knowledge of one’s own profession also becomes a barrier; this was pointed out in self-reflections from graduate level clinicians after an interdisciplinary experience: “I would have preferred if we had more feeding knowledge along with knowledge about the patient’s disorder… we did not possess enough knowledge to effectively help the patients or the nurses.” We cannot expect all students to have in-depth knowledge about treatment approaches and diagnostics when they have not had experience through coursework or clinic.

ASHA has begun to explore advancing the field towards a clinical doctorate program to provide additional training and education to entry level clinicians. Several programs have opened-up this opportunity for returning professionals. Perhaps if the clinical doctorate became the new entry-level standard, then additional coursework and training experiences in the interdisciplinary model could be provided. However, such a move would come at several costs towards the profession which has been discussed in depth elsewhere and is not within the scope of this discussion. Under the current two-year graduate level training model, such a standard could be integrated within clinical internships and throughout coursework. An approach to do so will be discussed in a later post.

Several graduate programs in speech-language pathology have already taken steps to provide interdisciplinary training to their students. Sample graduate programs and resources can be found online at CAPCSD. These programs may serve as effective models for programs looking to provide such opportunities to students, and may be beneficial for advocates who wish to push the interdisciplinary teamwork model to the national level.

Support for interdisciplinary teamwork must be garnered at the administration level to promote these interdisciplinary experiences. Faculty must be provided with resources including time and funds to establish this curriculum. As Rogers and Nunez (June, 2013) suggest, this is further complicated by differing curriculum schedules across professions. University administrators must provide dedicated faculty with the flexibility to synchronize class schedules to facilitate this level of collaboration.

If we accept that interdisciplinary teamwork among healthcare professions is integral, then a culture of change at the level of national licensing organizations is necessary for these experiences to occur. We cannot simply place responsibility on university programs to make these changes, as achieving administration support may be best promoted when such changes are necessary rather than encouraged. Further, this cannot occur only within a single licensing organization, but rather must rely on commitment from several rehabilitation organizations (e.g., ASHA, AOTA, APTA, etc.).

It is intuitive that providing more formal education in interdisciplinary teamwork would benefit students transitioning into entry-level positions where team collaboration has become the workforce expectation (e.g., IEPs, patient rounding, co-evaluations/arena-evaluations). Often, graduate students only have the opportunity to observe their faculty or mentors engage in such practices, though some privy mentors integrate interdisciplinary teamwork into clinical experiences. Where some may encourage students gaining interdisciplinary teamwork experiences, I would argue this to become a standard of practice.

The interprofessional education I received from the Iowa LEND program has made an incredible difference in my readiness to serve clients on interdisciplinary teams. Thanks to Leah (Social Worker), I continue to identify the needs of the families I serve using this tool and will connect families with a social worker if they need additional supports. Interprofessional education and training supports my abilities to serve clients and families beyond just their communication needs (and many of our children who use assistive technology DO have needs beyond communication). In what ways have you supported families beyond your profession due to the skills you have gained through interprofessional education?


Resources:

American Speech-Language Hearing Association (ASHA) (May, 2016). Interprofessional practice survey results. Retrieved from http://www.asha.org/uploadedFiles/2016-Interprofessional-Practice-Survey-Results.pdf.

Bird, M. & Kusior, A. (2016). Interprofessional Collaboration: AAC. Illinois State University Theses and Dissertations. Paper 560.

Dudding, C. C., Hulton, L., & Stewart, A. L. (November, 2016). Simulated patients, real IPE lessons. The ASHA Leader, 21, 52-59.

Rogers, M. & Nunez, L. (June, 2013). From my perspective: How do we make interprofessional collaboration happen? The ASHA Leader, 18, 7-8.

Speech-Language Pathologist,Educator,Occupational Therapist,Physical Therapist,Researcher,Other,teamwork

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