Collaborating for Education and Practice:

1
Collaborating for Education and Practice An
Interprofessional Education Strategy for
Newfoundland and Labrador Co-principal
Investigators Vernon R Curran, PhD, Associate
Professor and Dennis Sharpe, PhD, Professor,
Memorial University of Newfoundland Partners
Counselling Centre, Faculty of Medicine, School
of Social Work, Centre for Nursing Studies,
Faculty of Education, School of Pharmacy, School
of Nursing and Western Regional School of Nursing

• PROJECT GOALS AND OBJECTIVES
• expand and promote pre- and post-licensure
  interprofessional education activities in both
  education and practice settings
• enhance the collaborative patient-centered
  practice competencies of an increased number of
  learners and practitioners in the province
• organize and deliver faculty development
  initiatives to foster positive attitudinal
  changes, increased understanding of the roles and
  responsibilities of other health care
  professionals, and skill acquisition in the areas
  being taught to students
• conduct a systematic evaluation of the curriculum
  framework and project activities

• BASELINE EVALUATION
• All students and faculty from Medicine, Nursing,
  Pharmacy and Social Work completed a baseline
  assessment of attitudes towards interprofessional
  teamwork and education.
• Evaluation Instruments
• Attitudes Towards Interprofessional Health Care
  Teams (adapted from Heinemann, Schmitt, and
  Farrell (2002))
• Attitudes Towards Interprofessional Education
  (adapted from Parsell and Bligh (1999))
• Attitudes Towards Interprofessional Learning in
  the Academic Setting (adapted from Gardner et al.
  (2002)) faculty only
• Findings
• Overall positive attitudes towards
  interprofessional health care teams,
  interprofessional education and interprofessional
  learning in the academic setting.
• Variables affecting attitudes included gender,
  health professional discipline and prior
  experience with interprofessional education.

EVALUATION FRAMEWORK EVALUATION FRAMEWORK
Component Example Outcomes
Reaction Learners views of the interprofessional education experience.
Modification of attitudes perception Changes in perception or attitudes towards the valued and/or use of interprofessional teams and teamwork.
Acquisition of knowledge skills Knowledge and skills related to interprofessional collaboration.
Behavioural change Transfer of interprofessional learning to practice settings and changed professional practice.
Change in organizational practice Impact and changes in health care organizations or health care system.
Benefits to patients or clients Improvements in health or well being of patients or clients.
KEY TERMS Interprofessional Education Occasions
when two or more professions learn with, from and
about each other to improve collaboration and the
quality of care (Centre for the Advancement of
Interprofessional Education, (UK) rev.
2002). Interprofessional Health Care Teams Teams
consisting of health professionals from at least
three different disciplines or professions who
share a common purpose and work together
collaboratively and interdependently to serve a
specific patient/client population and achieve
the teams and organizations goals and
objectives.

• INTERPROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
• Health Society IPE Learning Blocks
• Delivered to the pre-clinical/practice learner
  who has limited clinical exposure.
• Examples include Health Promotion through
  Community Assessment, Professionalism, and
  Cultural Awareness.
• IPE Health Learning Modules
• Delivered during the clinical/practice novice
  developmental stage to introduce students to
  interprofessional care planning across settings
  and patients.
• Topics include Health and Well Being of
  Children, Rehabilitative Care, Geriatric Care,
  Palliative Care, HIV/AIDS Care, Mental Health
  Care, and Newborn Care.
• Evaluation Instruments for Blocks and Modules
• Satisfaction with Interprofessional Activity
  Scale (developed by the CCHPE) Perception of
  Interprofessional Small Group Session (adapted
  from Jaques (2000)) Opinions of
  Interprofessional Teamwork (adapted from Clark
  (1994)).

• CHALLENGES
• Curriculum Implementation
• Scheduling interprofessional education activities
  across different curricula and time tables.
• Delivering interprofessional education at
  distributed sites across the province (St. Johns
  and Corner Brook).
• Liaising and promoting interprofessional
  education across education and health systems.
• Evaluation
• Deciding on appropriate evaluation methods and
  instruments for each project component.
• Deciding on the amount of data to collect.
• Finding ways to maximize survey response rates.

INTERPROFESSIONAL EDUCATION CURRICULUM
FRAMEWORK

• Findings
• During the 2006 Winter semester, students
  participated in three interprofessional modules
  including Health and Well Being of Children,
  HIV/AIDS Care, and Geriatric Care.
• The majority of students agreed that
• The learning experience enhanced their
  understanding of interprofessional teamwork.
• They learned a great deal about the role of
  their profession on an interprofessional team.
• They would recommend the module they
  participated in to other learners.
• Overall, their participation in the module was a
  meaningful learning experience.

• IMPLICATIONS
• Blended-learning appears to be an effective way
  for facilitating interprofessional education for
  distributed sites.
• Faculty development is a key factor in success.
• Using/adapting existing measurement instruments.
• Minimizing the length and number of surveys and
  other data gathering approaches.
• Minimizing the use of mail-out and web-based
  surveys.

• STUDY LEARNINGS
• Promoting and fostering interprofessional
  education in practice settings is key.
• Preceptor/clinical team development is key.
• Use of common measures for each project
  component to enable analysis of different groups
  and change over time.
• Differences in initial results based on
  demographic variables and health professional
  affiliation.

Project Sponsor This project is made possible
through the financial contribution from Health
Canada through the Health Care Strategies, Policy
Contribution Program.