Jenn Salfi

Dissecting through barriers: A mixed‐methods study on the effect of interprofessional education in a dissection course with healthcare professional students

Healthcare delivery is reliant on a team‐based approach, and interprofessional education (IPE) provides a means by which such collaboration skills can be fostered prior to entering the workplace. IPE within healthcare programs has been associated with improved collaborative behavior, patient care and satisfaction, reduced clinical error, and diminished negative professional stereotypes. An intensive interprofessional gross anatomy dissection course was created in 2009 to facilitate IPE at McMaster University. Data were collected from five cohorts over five years to determine the influence of this IPE format on the attitudes and perceptions of students towards other health professions. Each year, 28 students from the medicine, midwifery, nursing, physicians assistant, physiotherapy, and occupational therapy programs were randomly assigned into interprofessional teams for 10 weeks. Sessions involved an anatomy and scope‐of‐practice presentation, a small‐group case‐based session, and a dissection. A before/after design measured changes in attitudes and perceptions, while focus group data elaborated on the student experience with the course. Pre‐ and postmatched data revealed significant improvements in positive professional identity, competency and autonomy, role clarity and attitudes toward other health professions. Qualitative analysis of intraprofessional focus group interviews revealed meaningful improvements in a number of areas including learning anatomy, role clarity, and attitudes towards other health professions. Anat Sci Educ 8: 305–316.

Overcoming All Obstacles: A Framework for Embedding Interprofessional Education Into a Large, Multisite Bachelor of Science Nursing Program

As the delivery of health care becomes more complex and challenging, the need for all health care professionals to collaborate as a team has been identified. Nurses are an integral part of the health care team, so it is critical that their education prepare them for interprofessional collaborative practice. Although many academic settings are currently offering interprofessional education (IPE) in the form of compulsory and elective activities and courses, it may not be enough nor an option for programs with large volumes of students who are distributed across a variety of sites and locations. This article outlines a framework that has been successfully adopted by one large school of nursing that chose to integrate interprofessional competencies throughout its curriculum. This IPE agenda is cost-effective, sustainable, and accessible, and it can be adapted to meet the needs of other prelicensure programs that face similar obstacles or challenges with offering IPE.

Food, Body Function, and Leisure for Midlife Women: “If I Partake in That, I Will Suffer Consequences”

Abstract This study used hermeneutic phenomenology to explore the meaning that seven Canadian midlife women give to the experience of their changing bodies in relation to food, body function, and leisure. Findings emerge from in-depth, semi-structured research conversations and reveal these women have a contentious relationship with eating that arises from an awareness that what they choose to eat today will impact how they will feel tomorrow. The women in this study experience fatigue as a consequence of their food decisions, which then negatively impacts their leisure participation. The current study underscores the impact of food and body function not only on physical activity for midlife women but also on other leisure pursuits such as socializing with friends. These findings highlight the complex relationship between food, body function, and leisure in the context of daily life for these midlife women.

Dissecting through barriers: A follow-up study on the long-term effects of interprofessional education in a dissection course with healthcare professional students: Long-Term Effects of an IPE Dissection Course

Several studies have shown significant improvements in the attitudes and perceptions of healthcare professional students toward interprofessional education (IPE) immediately following intervention with IPE courses. However, there remains little evidence on the lasting effects of IPE courses and the long‐term influences of these IPE experiences are poorly documented. The purpose of this study is to assess the long‐term effects of an intensive, ten‐week interprofessional gross anatomy dissection course at McMaster University. Attitudes and perceptions of past participants towards interprofessional learning were evaluated, now that they have started working with other healthcare professionals outside of the IPE course setting. Thirty‐four past participants who have clinical experience working in interprofessional settings or are currently working in the healthcare field completed a follow‐up questionnaire consisting of a modified Readiness for Interprofessional Learning Scale (RIPLS) and open‐ended questions. Quantitative analysis revealed a significant decrease in their attitude towards teamwork and collaboration and respect for other health professions, but a significant improvement in their understanding of roles and responsibilities compared to their results immediately after the IPE intervention. Qualitative analysis of open‐ended questions revealed several themes such as developing interprofessional competencies, developing relationships, and remembering the strengths of the IPE dissection course. The results of this study indicate that the IPE experience in anatomy was highly valued by the students and that past participants maintain a clear understanding of their scope of practice, but the reality of clinical practice may have eroded gains made in the program. Anat Sci Educ.

Informed Strangers: Witnessing and Responding to Unethical Care as Student Nurses

Nursing students occupy a unique perspective in clinical settings because they are informed, through education, about how patient care ought to happen. Given the brevity of placements and their “visiting status” in clinical sites, students are less invested in the ethos of specific sites. Subsequently, their perspectives of quality care are informed by what should happen, which might differ from that of nurses and patients. The purpose of this study was to identify predominant themes in patient care, as experienced by students, and the influence that these observations have on the development of their ethical reasoning. Using a qualitative descriptive approach in which 27 nursing student papers and three follow-up in-depth interviews were analyzed, three main themes emerged: Good employee, poor nurse; damaged care; and negotiating the gap. The analysis of the ethical situations in these papers suggests that students sometimes observe care that lacks concern for the dignity, autonomy, and safety of patients. For these student nurses, this tension led to uncertainty about patient care and their eventual profession.