Development of a scale to measure health professions students' self-efficacy beliefs in interprofessional learning

Happy Holidays from the Journal of Interprofessional Care!

Great article about the development of a scale to measure health professions students' self-efficacy beliefs in interprofessional learning. 

By Karen Mann (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Judith McFetridge-Durdle (Memorial University, St. John's, Newfoundland, Canada), Lynn Breau (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Joanne Clovis (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Ruth Martin-Misener (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Tanya Matheson (Dalhousie University, Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada), Hope Beanlands (University of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia), Maria Sarria (Follett Software, Simpsonville, SC, USA)

A need exists for measures to evaluate the impact of interprofessional education (IPE) interventions. We undertook development and evaluation of a scale to measure self-efficacy perceptions of pre-licensure students in medicine, dentistry and health professions. The scale was developed in the context of a project entitled, “Seamless Care: An Experiential Model of Interprofessional Education for Collaborative Patient-Centered Practice”. As self-efficacy perceptions are associated with the likelihood of taking on certain tasks, the difficulty of those tasks, and perseverance in the face of barriers, we reasoned that understanding changes in students' perceptions and their relation to other outcomes was important. A 16-item scale was developed from a conceptual analysis of relevant tasks and the existing literature. Content validity was assessed by six Canadian IPE experts. Pre-licensure students (n = 209) participated in a pilot test of the instrument. Content validity was rated highly by the six judges; internal consistency of the scale (Cronbach's α = 96) and subscales 1 (α = .94) and 2 (α = .93) were high. Principal components analysis resulted in identification of two factors, each accounting for 34% of the variance: interprofessional interaction, and interprofessional team evaluation and feedback. We conclude that this scale can be useful in evaluating IPE interventions.



For more information, read Journal of Interprofessional Care, 

Early Online - December 14, 2011: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13561820.2011.640759

Frequency of nurse–physician collaborative behaviours in an acute care hospital

Interesting article written by: Dawn Marie Nair, (Department of Nursing, Fairfield University, 

Fairfield, CT

, USA); Joyce J. Fitzpatrick (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); Rita McNulty (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); Elizabeth R. Click (Department of Nursing, Case Western Reserve University, 

Cleveland, OH

, USA); and Margaret M. Glembocki (Department of Nursing, Oakland University, 

Rochester, MI

, USA).

A new culture bolstering collaborative behavior among nurses and physicians is needed to merge the unique strengths of both professions into opportunities to improve patient outcomes. To meet this challenge it is fundamental to comprehend the current uses of collaborative behaviours among nurses and physicians. The purpose of this descriptive study was to delineate frequently used from infrequently used collaborative behaviours of nurses and physicians in order to generate data to support specific interventions for improving collaborative behavior. The setting was an acute care hospital, and participants included 114 registered nurses and 33 physicians with active privileges. The Nurse–Physician Collaboration Scale was used to measure the frequency of use of nurse–physician collaborative behaviors self-reported by nurses and physicians. The background variables of gender, age, education, ethnicity, years of experience, years practiced at the current acute care hospital, practice setting and professional certification were accessed. In addition to analyzing the frequency of collaborative behaviors, this study compares levels of collaborative behavior reported by nurses and physicians.
For more information, please read the Journal of Interprofessional Care, Early Online: http://informahealthcare.com/doi/abs/10.3109/13561820.2011.637647

The role of interagency collaboration in “joined-up” case management

Interesting article about interagency collaboration, written by Marty Grace (School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, 

Melbourne

, Australia), Louise Coventry, (School of Social Sciences and Psychology, Victoria University, 

Melbourne

, Australia),  and Deb Batterham (Hanover Welfare Services, Research and Policy, 

Fitzroy, Melbourne

, Australia).

This article reports on research into the relationships that a group of case managers formed with local service providers in order to deliver integrated, “joined-up” services to young people experiencing homelessness and unemployment in the state of Victoria, Australia. Using a two-part customized survey tool, we explored the number and nature of relationships with other agencies. Two focus group discussions contributed to the interpretation of the survey findings. We found that these case managers maintained many relationships, mostly with housing and employment service providers. These relationships were predominantly cooperative in nature, and most could not easily be characterized as collaborative. Our research supports the view that, in an increasingly complex social service system, other forms of cooperation are usually appropriate for achieving the types of interorganizational relationships that are important to assist shared clients. Furthermore, this research supports the notion of a relationship continuum, finding that ratings of relationship elements were positively correlated with relationship type. This research indicates the importance of considering the pragmatic, contextual and situated practices that comprise interagency relationships, their fitness for purpose and the importance of cooperation for effective service provision.

For more information, please read the Journal of Interprofessional Care, December 6, 2011, Early Online.

Circles of care: A novel tool for interprofessional health education

Very interesting early online article, written by: Sarit Khimdas, Akshay Shetty, Chandheeb Rajakumar, Colin Meyer-Macaulay, Cal Shapiro, Rachit Sheshgiri and Neeraj Patel

(University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada).

The health care landscape has seen a dramatic change over the last 15 years, with an emphasis on an inter- professional model of health care delivery in a patient-centered context (Thistlethwaite, Moran, & World Health Organization Study Group on Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice, 2010). Today’s health professionals are dealing with an increasing number of older and chronically ill patients that has forced us to reevaluate how we deliver care. The interplay between biopsychosocial aspects of chronic health illnesses has led to a more collaborative working relationship between different allied health care professionals, resulting in better patient care.

It has been shown, however, that on entering higher education, students become professionally socialized, poss- ibly creating cognitive and social boundaries between professions that hinder sharing of knowledge (Jacobsen, Fink, Marcussen, Larsen, & Hansen, 2009). Therefore, it is all the more important that the role of interprofessional education takes on an active role within health education curriculum.

Interprofessional education on clinical training wards with exposure to trainees from other health care fields improved awareness of each others disciplinary roles, increased knowledge base of their own roles and fostered greater cooperation between groups, while creating positive attitudes toward other professions (Wijma, 1999). Our group has sought to present an alternative to interprofessional training sessions. Working with the Inter Professional Health Education and Research Department at the University of Western Ontario, we developed an interactive learning board game meant to be played by professionals and students from different allied health care fields in sessions ranging from 1 to 2 hours, titled Circles of Care.

For more information, please read: The Journal of Interprofessional Care, Early Online, December 6, 2011.