Interprofessional Teamwork: Developing a Common Curricular

Interprofessional Education “When students from two or more professions learn about, from and with each other to enable effective collaboration and improved health outcomes. (WHO, 2010)

INITIAL DEVELOPMENT OF THE SIMULATION PROJECT DENTAL HYGIENE STANDARD 2-19: “Graduates must be competent in interpersonal and communication skills to effectively interact with diverse population groups and other members of the health care team.”

Core Competencies for Interprofessional Collaborative Practice Competency Domains: – Values/Ethics for Interprofessional Practice – Roles/Responsibilities – Interprofessional Communication – Teams and Teamwork

Health Professions Model for Building Professional and Interprofessional Teamwork Programs • Policy and Purpose • Visual Representation

Examples of Implementation

Health Professions and University of Illinois Medical Students  Simulation involving nursing students, respiratory therapy students and medical students  Clinical preceptors often took the lead in communicating patient assessment and implementation of orders.  The simulation allowed RN, RT and MD students to practice confident communication within the health care team.

“I always assumed that the MD knew about everything we can do. Now I know that I must know the information well enough to sell it to the doctor”

Dental Hygiene & Nursing • Collaborative patient education in which the nursing and dental hygiene student addressed the medical and dental history from the perspective of their profession. – Greater knowledge of each professional’s role – Discovery of the link of oral health and overall medical status. – Students felt that it needed to be more structured with faculty mediators or leaders.

Occupational Therapy Assistant, Medical Office Assistant, Certified Nurse Assistant and Nursing

• Simulation of a patient with a cerebral vascular injury after a fall. The simulation follows the patient from the time of the fall until discharge and home therapy visits.

– Discovered how roles overlapped during patient care. – Defined scope of practice – Developed a collaborative care plan

“The likenesses of different disciplines should naturally be a strong team unit but I discovered that isn’t always the case.”

Nursing, Surgical Technology, Emergency Medical Services, Respiratory Therapy, Certified Nurse Assistant • Obstetric patient delivers a preterm infant. Infant is in respiratory distress and in NICU. Mom develops a post partum hemorrhage and needs surgery and blood products and is admitted to ICU. – Delivering patient care while discovering and working through the perceived hierarchy of the health care team.

OB Simulation Phase II • Students evaluated their performance after the simulation • A more advanced level of care will be implemented for Phase II.

What Have We Learned? • Students are novices and need the direction and mediation of faculty. • Students from different disciplines are not comfortable working with each other. • Students realize the scope of practice of other health professions. • Students have found projects to be extremely valuable

Summary • Communication was the most difficult aspect of each of the simulations. – Reinforced the need for future projects of interdisciplinary education. – Even as students were becoming proficient with their clinical skills, their ability to communicate with other members of the health care team was a challenge.