Report Review: Lessons from the Field: Promising InterprofessionalCollaboration Practices

In this report the authors have written engaging and educational chapters that identify the practices and guidelines of interprofessional collaboration. The report is directed towards an audience who is involved or interested in the health care field, and looking for more information on improving collaboration based on a health care model of the United States.

The report focuses on identifying interprofessional collaboration in practice and the day-to-day activities health care organizations put into the concept of interprofessional collaboration. The authors of this report use a format and writing style that is easy to understand for readers.

The primary goal of the report is to identify the guiding principles and practices that provide practical ways to address and overcome barriers of interprofessional collaboration. The report helps readers to better understand the role interprofessional collaboration has and how it advances the health field. For example, the authors describe how interprofessional collaboration is transitioning from treating people who are sick to keeping people healthy. The report is a combination of both theoretical and practical types of interprofessional collaboration.

The authors have sought out seven organizations and implemented their theories into practice. Each organization provided their own input on the success of interprofessional collaboration so far, and the potential future of interprofessional collaboration as making a difference in the health care field by creating a safer environment for patients and providers, as well as enhancing the quality of care. The report is organized by sections, and each section builds off the previous one, providing more in depth information on six guidelines required to create an environment in which interprofessional collaboration can thrive. These six guidelines are: (1) putting patients first; (2) demonstrate leadership commitment as an organizational priority; (3) create a level playing field enabling team members; (4) cultivate effective team communication; (5) explore the use of organizational structure to hardwire interprofessional practice; (6) and train different disciplines together so they learn how to work together. These guidelines help the most potent set of practices to develop, foster and sustain interprofessional collaboration.

Each chapter of the report further describes each of the main guidelines, and contains its own principles for that guideline, while going into depth more on some more specific principles for that guideline. The sections conclude with cases that are relevant to the principle talked about in that chapter. The guiding principles, practices, and case examples, described in this report, provides practical ways to address and overcome many of the historical barriers that fall in interprofessional collaboration. Each chapter has practical features that are not always found in textbooks, such as quotes from different health care organizations, as well as an inside view on howeach of these organizations set out to identify interprofessional collaboration in practice.

The report provides substantive references for their claims, studies and statistics. Each organization the report focuses on believes their model if working and making a difference in the health care system. The book takes an ethnographic approach that allows them to compare and contrast what organizations say they are doing with observations to understand how interprofessional collaboration practices work on the ground, both tactically and explicitly. This allows the authors to identify the promising practices of interprofessional collaboration, and better understand the role interprofessional collaboration has, as it is advanced in the health field.

Overall, authors of this report have compiled an accessible and thorough addition to the area of interprofessional collaboration. It is a practical option for those interested in attaining an introduction to this topic, and I readily recommend it to health care workers interested.

Reviewed by  

Namira Dossa

Concordia University of Edmonton, Canada

Lessons from the Field: Promising Interprofessional Collaboration Practices

CFAR, Inc., Jennifer Tomasik, & Caitlyn Fleming.

White Paper, The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation

2015, 59 pages

Blog Article: Lessons Learned from the Development of an Annual Multi-Institutional Interprofessional Service Learning Health Expo

Lessons Learned from the Development of an Annual Multi-Institutional Interprofessional Service Learning Health Expo

Raymond Higbea (1), Jodie Elder (2); Katie Branch (1)

(1) Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

(2) Ferris State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan, USA

Introduction

To ensure that tomorrow’s healthcare professionals are prepared for and empowered to make future practice integration changes, today’s healthcare students must not only be witnesses to the benefits of interprofessional practice, but well versed in working within an interprofessional framework prior to graduation (World Health Organization 1998). The Midwest Interprofessional Practice, Education, and Research Center (MIPERC) founded in the fall of 2007 by Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids Medical Education Partners, and Michigan State University College of Human Medicine is committed to educating health professionals by providing experiences in the development of skills in collaboration, communication, and team work that supports patient centered quality care.  

MIPERC’s mission is to identify ways that educational and practice partnerships can be developed to include: collaborative, innovative, and interprofessional initiatives across professions, learning institutions, and healthcare systems. The foundation of the MIPERC interprofessional education (IPE) model includes the Institute of Medicine’s (2001) core competencies of patient centered care, evidence-based practice, quality improvement, the use of informatics, and interprofessional teams. MIPERC has built its working infrastructure around six champion workgroups: clinical setting; curriculum; professionaldevelopment; scholarship; service-learning; and simulation to assist with refinement and implementation of the model.  Participation in a workgroup is voluntary and open to any area faculty, staff, or community healthcare professional.

Background

During the 2013 fall semester MIPERC Service-learning workgroup began planning for the workgroup’s primary service learning event for the academic year.  Students from the MIPERC’s student organization Promoting Interprofessional Education for Students (PIPES) were surveyed for interest and willingness to participate in an interprofessional community health fair in the spring of 2014.  PIPES students were also asked to choose a target population of interest.  Eighty-one percent of those surveyed (26/32) reported an interest and willingness to participate in an interprofessional community health fair.

Based upon survey feedback, the first MIPERC service-learning interprofessional health fair service learning experience was planned by the workgroup for March 2014.  Target populationfor the health fair was families with topical categories: healthy travel, healthy lifestyles, healthy sports and recreation, and success in school.  

Due to the success of the first multi-institutional interprofessional health fair (2014), the MIPERC Service-learning workgroup continued with the planning and execution of a second (2015) and third (2016) interprofessional health expo.  The word, “fair” was replace with word, “expo” in 2015 with the purposeful intention of drawing additional interest in participation.

Methods

Routine planning methods were employed to prepare for the fair/expo including: conducting a needs assessment; recruitment of faculty advisors, community advisors, and staff; recruitment of students; development of student support and incentives; development of health fair/expo theme; event planning activities, e.g., choosing a date, securing a site, and various logistical activities; and development of event evaluation and learning outcome assessment

Due to the report nature of this manuscript, it was not submitted to the Grand Valley State University Human Research Review Committee for review.  The evaluation and assessment for the 2015 health expo was submitted to the Grand Valley State University Human Research Review Board and received exempt status due to its lack of any personal identifying information. 

Currently, the program evaluation and assessment is under review of the Grand Valley State University Human Research Review Board for exempt status.

Results & Discussion

The first two years have produced the following results (year 3 results are pending): increased student participation (tripled); increased faculty advisor participation (tripled); increased university participation (quadrupled); and positive survey results indicating a high level of health fair/expo participant learning.

Planning and executing a multi-institutional interprofessional health expo can be challenging.  It is recommended institutions that seek to create a similar experience in their community: (1) start planning and recruiting early; (2) define goals, objectives, target audience, and theme of each year’s expo; (3) place student in teams based on topic of interest and education level; (4) keep student teams to a maximum of five student and a minimum of one faculty advisor; (5) obtain funding for the development of student exhibits; (6) provide advisor and student IPE trainingonline including role expectations and timelines; (7) obtain IRB approval early; and (8) give credit for service learning via a certificate of participation.

The planning trend with this event has been simplification and standardization.  This event has simplified its planning process based on previous experience and has as a result of these experiences simplified its target audience to college students on the university’s main campus, simplified it themes from a collection of topics to standardized dimensions of student wellness, and moved from an event that included speakers and project displays to only project displays.  Standardization activities have included training and recruitment of faculty advisors, theme development, student support, service learning certificate, and learning assessment.

Patient care models are moving from profession-specific provision of physician directed patient care to patient centric care delivered by interprofessional teams.  Due to this shift, it is imperative that today’s healthcare students learn how to deliver effective patient care from narrow lens of their profession and the broad lens of a team.  It is through events such as such this interprofessional service learning event that students will begin to develop team based skills, learn their role in a team, and begin to develop an understanding of what others have to offer patients through a team based delivery of care.  Activities such as this service-learning event and other similar activities will allow student to succeed within these emerging practice models.  It is the responsibility for those of us training these students to move beyond our professional silos and provide students with interprofessional events that will prepare them to develop the skills necessary to become team-based practitioners of patient care delivery.

References

World Health Organization (1988) Learning Together to Work Together. Geneva: WHO.

Institute of Medicine (2001) Committee on Quality of Health Care in America, editor. Crossing the Quality Chasm: a new health system for the 21st century. Washington, DC: National Academy Press.

Contact: Raymond Higbea (higbeara@gvsu.edu)

Book Review: Collaborative Caring: Stories and Reflections on Teamworkin Health Care

Teamwork is an important topic in health care organizations today. While there are many theoretical books that explore the issues of teamwork in a health care setting, the practical application of theory into practice continues to be increasingly complex. Teamwork is integral to providing quality patient care that is both efficient in minimizing costs and resources, and effective in decreasing errors and injuries. This book discusses the topic of teamwork and its nature in real world application. Editors Suzanne Gordon, David Feldman, and Michael Leonard have compiled fifty stories provided by people from various health care professions that give a first hand account of what effective teamwork, or the lack of it, means in the health care field. The book explores several different themes such as psychological safety, patient advocacy, barriers to effective teamwork and the organizational cultural traits that help to overcome such barriers and establish genuine teamwork models.

The book is comprised of eight parts that cover the different dimensions of teamwork, each having a brief introduction highlighting its key messages. Part 1 includes stories where health care personnel excel at working as part of a team, and insight and understanding of the team, team intelligence, is illustrated. The stories in Part 2 showcase ineffective teams and the damages or dangers that occur as a result of the absence of collaborative work. Part 3 shares stories that discuss the importance of the patient as a member of the team, and including the patient in discussions, and feedback. Part 4 discusses psychological safety, where one feels safe to voice concerns about patients or situations, being at the crux of effective team building. The stories within focus on leadership skills required for the creation of such an environment. The stories in Part 5 demonstrate that coaching and learning are crucial for team related evaluation and process improvement. Part 6 demonstrates patient advocacy not only being an essential component of high quality care, but also being at the heart of genuine team models that provide patient and family centered care. Part 7 looks at the barriers to effective teamwork. Barriers that have kept health care professionals working in silos as opposed to teams include organizational hierarchies, professional self-identities and incentives or reward structures. Part 8 concludes with stories that illustrate how organizations are adapting to transform themselves to create the systems and culture necessary for good teamwork.

This book is an excellent read for raising awareness of the practical application of team theory and its various issues. The stories increase understanding of the complexities involved inreal-world teamwork dynamics and what healthcare professionals and administrators can do to solve such issues. Ultimately, teamwork that is both efficient and effective is necessary for providing sustainable, quality health care.

Reviewed by

Naz Qureshi, BSc, BCom, MBA

Alberta Pensions Services Corporation

Collaborative Caring: Stories and Reflections on Teamwork in Health Care

Suzanne Gordon, David L. Feldman, and Michael Leonard

New York, USA, Cornell University Press, 2014

286 pages, $27.95

ISBN 978-0-8014-5339-7