Structuring Interprofessional Education (Part 2)

Brandon Eddy

1/19/2017 5:24 PM

As an Iowa LEND-trainee, case-study presentations were one of my favorite activities to rehearse interdisciplinary practice. During these presentations, trainees were asked to present on a complex child and family they had seen in clinic, and to share with the group about the child’s history, presentation, and current treatment. Trainees in the audience were asked to collaborate and identify how they may be able to assist in this child’s development or family situation. These talks were filled with insights into other professions and the variety of ways that their profession intervenes in the child’s and family’s life. It also provided trainees the opportunity to educate others about the variety of services they provided and to help frame their profession in a network of healthcare and education professions.

Interprofessional education is essential to students who will be entering the workforce to prepare them for the interdisciplinary teamwork that is so often required in the work-force. In the previous post, we discussed steps to initiating an interprofessional education program at the administrative level. This post will discuss potential class structure and activities to promote interdisciplinary teamwork.

After establishing administrative support and faculty members who will champion this cause, class structure and layout should be determined. It may be possible that two days of coursework (1 hour per day) weekly may be sufficient to acquire discipline specific knowledge and receive instruction on practicing in an interdisciplinary team. One day a week could be discipline specific, where students are explicitly taught methods to facilitate assistive technology skill acquisition and methods of evaluation and treatment. The second day could be a collaborative event where students across all disciplines share the same class, and where students are matched into groups with each discipline represented by one or more students. Ideally, the second day would focus explicitly on working within an interdisciplinary model to achieve the competencies eloquently outlined by Buring et al. (2009) (see Table 1).

To be an effective member of the team, students must become knowledgeable about the variety of assistive technology tools that could meet their patient’s needs. Students should have access to a lab where assistive technology tools are available and trialed under the supervision of a research or teacher assistant. Demonstration of how tools can be integrated across disciplines should be modeled and trialed by each student.

Perhaps the most effective way to support students would be through hands-on learning and case-studies. The use of clinical simulations (e.g., Second Life) may be one method where students can practice interacting and evaluating clients in a supported environment. These mock-patients should be matched to the group’s education level, familiarity with the diagnoses, and familiarity with the equipment needed to support them. Students should use a consistent evaluative framework (e.g., SETT) so that team members share knowledge of how evaluations will be conducted to meet client needs.

It is important that each group have their own to promote independence and for group presentations to the rest of the class. As the course continues, the needs of the client should evolve and warrant reevaluations from the team. On any interdisciplinary AT team, events may occur which change team dynamics. As an example, during the course one discipline might switch to a new group to represent losing and gaining a new team member; students should be encouraged to reflect on how these events influences teamwork and how they can continue to promote teamwork. Opportunities for conflict management must also be presented so that students can learn to work through disagreements within a team to reach a united solution that is honored by the team.

Students must also master the skill of providing education to their team and leading a team meeting. Borrowing from the Oregon LEND program, having students lead a "chalk-talk” where they educate the team on a topic related to the patient may provide the opportunity to learn teaching strategies for educating members of different disciplines; this topic may not be required to fall within that discipline’s scope (e.g., discussing amblyopia including causes, treatment/management, and influence on AT use). Each student should have the opportunity to lead and engage in a team meeting in which evaluation findings and recommendations are discussed across each discipline.

Students should continue to be evaluated and provided with feedback on how they may enhance their interdisciplinary skills. The Interprofessional Professionalism Collaborative designed a tool that can be used to rate trainees who are engaging in interdisciplinary teamwork. This tool has not yet been formally released, but is expected to be released in the near future.

As you can imagine, to successfully host such an experience would require time and hard-work on the part of dedicated faculty members. Buring et al. (2009) advocates to “start small and go slow.” The process of interprofessional education is a task that must be refined over years, though mimicking real practice is likely to provide the most benefit to students. An excellent example of how to integrate interprofessional education across disciplines was described by Ogletree (2015) in regards to AAC service provision. In addition, dysphagia evaluation and management may also be a great opportunity to integrate interprofessional education. What other topics do you believe could serve as effective teamwork opportunities in both school, hospital, and private practices?


Resources:
Buring, S. M., Bhushan, A., Broeseker, A., Conway, S., Duncan-Hewitt, W., Hansen, L., & Westberg, S. (2009). Interprofessional education: Definitions, student competencies, and guidelines for implementation. American Journal of Pharmaceutical Education, 73(4), 59.

Ogletree, B. T. (June, 2015). Meeting complex communication needs associated with genetic syndromes: A call to interprofessional education and practice. Perspectives on Augmentative and Alternative Communication, 24, 67-73.

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

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