Susan J. Wagner

Interprofessional education: An overview of key developments in the past three decades

OBJECTIVE This paper provides an overview of key developments of interprofessional education (IPE) in relation to its evolution over the past 30 years. METHODS A narrative review of the salient IPE literature was undertaken to generate key source materials for this paper. RESULTS Results are presented in four sections that focus on describing and discussing: the emergence of IPE, different learning/teaching approaches; the evidence base for IPE; organizational elements. In addition, to help illustrate these developments, we offer a case example of the work currently being undertaken at our own institution, with a focus on how various IPE developments have been integrated into our organizational priorities. CONCLUSIONS Based on the results presented, a series of key conclusions for the future development and implications of IPE are outlined.

Development and validation of the interprofessional collaborator assessment rubric ((ICAR))

There have been increasing calls for a competency-based approach in interprofessional education (IPE). The purpose of this multi-site research project was to develop a validated set of interprofessional collaborator competencies and an associated competency-based assessment rubric, in both English and French languages. The first phase involved a detailed comparative analysis of peer-reviewed and grey literature using typological analysis to construct a draft list of interprofessional collaborator competency categories and statements. A two-round Delphi survey of experts was undertaken to validate these competencies. In the second phase, an assessment rubric was developed based on the validated competencies and then evaluated for utility, clarity, practicality and fairness through multi-site focus groups with students and faculty at both college and university levels. The paper outlines an approach to developing, constructing and validating a bilingual instrument for interprofessional learning and assessment. The approach was collaborative in nature, involving an interprofessional project team and respondents from across multiple health profession education programs. The Delphi survey ratings indicate a high level of agreement with the importance of the competency statements and focus group participants rated the rubric positively and felt it had value. The focus group results were also useful in pre-piloting the contextual application of the instrument across multiple health profession education programs. This rubric instrument may be used across a variety of professions and learning contexts. Future work includes evaluation of further dimensions of validity and reliability for this tool across a variety of settings.

Assessment of interprofessional learning: the design of an interprofessional objective structured clinical examination (iOSCE) approach.

WilsonCentre for Research in Education, University of Toronto, CanadaINTRODUCTIONThere is a growing imperative for interprofessional educa-tion (IPE) and a shift towards interprofessional practicelinked to government initiatives to modernize healthcareservices and improve patient/client care (e.g. Barr et al.,2005). IPE is meant to instill the knowledge, skills, attitudesand values necessary for interdependent collaboration andteamwork with a focus on the efficient delivery of high-quality patient/client-centred care. The link between IPEand equipping students in healthcare for collaborativepractice has been made for several years (e.g. Szasz, 1969).Despite the broad adoption of IPE across a number ofeducational institutions, in general, there continues to belittle focus on the development and implementation ofsound assessment strategies.Widely used in medicine, the objective structured clinicalexamination(OSCE)aimstoassessclinicalknowledge,skills,behaviours and attitudes by structured observation (van derVleuten & Schuwirth, 2005). An interprofessional OSCE(iOSCE) uses this method to assess collaborative knowledge,skills, behaviours and attitudes (Morison & Stewart, 2005).TheiOSCEprovidesanalternativetoreflectionexercisesthatare more typically used to assess interprofessional attributes.This article reports on the development of an iOSCE in alarge university in North America which contains 10 healthscience faculties: dentistry, physical education and health,medical radiation sciences, medicine, nursing, occupationaltherapy, physical therapy, pharmacy, social work andspeech–language pathology. Specifically, we describe themethods used to engage participation from all healthprofessions in its development; report on the topic themesselected to develop into clinical scenarios; and providedetails of the iterative process planned to yield a reliable andvalid product.METHODSInterprofessional leaders from these different faculties(n¼23) with collective responsibility for overseeingthe development and implementation of a new IPEcurriculum were invited to participate in this study.A modified Delphi process was used to generate contentfor the iOSCE. A Delphi is a decision-making process thatuses expert opinion, gathered anonymously in the form of asurvey, under the guidance and direction of a facilitator toreach group consensus through collaboration, independentanalysis and iteration. It allows for moderation/changethrough group processes (Rowe & Wright, 1999) andrequires several rounds to obtain consensus. As describedbelow, three rounds were used in this study.In general, all faculties at the university had familiaritywith and involvement in the IPE curriculum planning. Themajority had direct experience in developing IPE learningactivities (78%, n¼18), half had experience as examiners ordevelopers of a traditional OSCE station, but as this is a newmethod of assessment none had experience as an examineror developer of an iOSCE station.In the first round, participants were asked to write fivebrief healthcare clinical scenarios, requiring participation offive or more different healthcare professions that involvedcompletion of a task as an interprofessional team. Thisresulted in a pool of 80 scenarios. Scenarios werethematically analyzed by the project team and through aprocess of discussion and modification, agreement was

Effectiveness of a faculty development program on interprofessional education: A randomized controlled trial

Evidence of the effectiveness of interprofessional education (IPE) is largely untested. In particular, assessing the best model for educating clinical faculty about IPE and whether it impacts their teaching remains a challenge. The IPE literature recognizes that skilled, knowledgeable, interprofessional faculty facilitators are integral for the successful implementation of IPE interventions. For collaborative practice (CP), however, there are gaps in our educational knowledge base. First, the literature falls short in outlining how faculty should learn how to teach interprofessional collaborative practice. Second, the literature offers little in the way of empirical accounts of the effectiveness of these sparse descriptions for faculty development.

A Novel Pain Interprofessional Education Strategy for Trainees: Assessing Impact on Interprofessional Competencies and Pediatric Pain Knowledge

It is well known that pain education in Canadian medical schools needs to be improved, and there have been many initiatives to improve pain education at the preprofessional stage of training. However, the majority of pain education still occurs in a classroom setting. The authors of this article implemented a novel interprofessional education-based teaching strategy in a tertiary care-based setting. This article presents a pilot study of this education model.

Milestones and entrustable professional activities: The key to practically translating competencies for interprofessional education?

Abstract Competency-based education and practice have become foundational for developing interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration. There has been a plethora of competencies developed in these areas recently, both at individual institutions and nationally; however, their effective integration and thus potential has not been fully realized educationally. Milestones and entrustable professional activities (EPAs) are new concepts and assessment approaches from medical education that provide a way to functionally use and maximize competencies to ensure that competency is attained. They are applicable to learning activities both within the classroom and the clinic, as well as to lifelong learning. This paper defines and describes milestones and EPAs, considers the importance of their application to IPE, and summarizes a future research project that will identify EPAs for an IPE curriculum.

Evaluating the effectiveness of an interprofessional education faculty development course: The transfer of interprofessional learning to the academic and clinical practice setting

Centre for Interprofessional Education, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Pediatrics, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Sunnybrook Health Science Centre, Toronto, Canada, University Health Network, Department of Family and Community Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Faculty of Pharmacy, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Centre for Faculty Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Mount Sinai Hospital, Department of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Toronto Rehabilitation Institute, Department of Occupational Science and Occupational Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Division of Physiatry, Department of Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Office of Continuing Education and Professional Development, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, Department of Physical Therapy, Faculty of Medicine, University of Toronto, Toronto, Canada, and Department of Speech-Language Pathology, Faculty of Medicine, Toronto, University of Toronto, Canada

The Health Care Team Challenge™: developing an international interprofessional education research collaboration

Interprofessional education (IPE) to improve and increase interprofessional collaborative practice (IPC) has been documented for over 50 years in Canada, but it is within the last 15 years that it has gained attention in research, education and practice contexts. IPE is defined as two or more professions that learn with from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care (CAIPE 2002). Early drivers for a renewed interest in IPE and IPC derive from an emerging interest in new health service delivery models such as integrated care clinics and primary health care and IPE and IPC have taken the center stage nationally and globally...

Contemporary IssuesThe Health Care Team Challenge™: Developing an international interprofessional education research collaboration☆☆☆★★★

Interprofessional education (IPE) to improve and increase interprofessional collaborative practice (IPC) has been documented for over 50 years in Canada, but it is within the last 15 years that it has gained attention in research, education and practice contexts. IPE is defined as two or more professions that learn with from and about each other to improve collaboration and the quality of care (CAIPE 2002). Early drivers for a renewed interest in IPE and IPC derive from an emerging interest in new health service delivery models such as integrated care clinics and primary health care and IPE and IPC have taken the center stage nationally and globally...

Assessment of interprofessional education: key issues, ideas, challenges, and opportunities.

Over the past few decades interprofessional education (IPE) has grown within the health professional education. IPE aims to provide learners with interactive experiences in order to prepare them better to work collaboratively to effectively meet the needs of patients, clients, and families. While the IPE literature has expanded significantly in the past few years, efforts to produce rigorous assessment of IPE continue to be a challenge. At present, most IPE assessment is focused on learner self-assessment that only provides a perception of what the learner thinks she/he may have learned. These struggles with assessing IPE appear to be rooted in a number of factors, including uncertainty about what to assess (e.g., individuals, groups, and/or teams), logistical challenges with organizing assessment for large groups of students and limited resources for IPE assessment. Despite these difficulties, it is recommended that the principles of assessment should be adhered to in any IPE activity. This chapter provides an exploration of key issues related to the assessment of IPE. It outlines the purpose of assessment and the use of an assessment blueprint to ensure that learners cover the relevant collaborative competencies. It also reflects on the processes of designing and implementing an IPE assessment activity and conceptualizes what needs to be assessed in IPE. This is illustrated using a clinical competency continuum model that employs the concept of milestones and applies ‘entrusted professional activities’ in a performance framework.