The Triple Aim unequivocally connects interprofessional healthcare teams to the provision of better healthcare services that would eventually lead to improved health outcomes. This review of the interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice empirical literature from 2008 to 2013 focused on the impact of this area of inquiry on the outcomes identified in the Triple Aim. The preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses methodology were employed including: a clearly formulated question, clear inclusion criteria to identify relevant studies based on the question, an appraisal of the studies or a subset of the studies, a summary of the evidence using an explicit methodology and an interpretation of the findings of the review. The initial search yielded 1176 published manuscripts that were reduced to 496 when the inclusion criteria were applied to refine the selection of published manuscripts. Despite a four-decade history of inquiry into IPE and/or collaborative practice, scholars have not yet demonstrated the impact of IPE and/or collaborative practice on simultaneously improving population health, reducing healthcare costs or improving the quality of delivered care and patients’ experiences of care received. We propose moving this area of inquiry beyond theoretical assumptions to systematic research that will strengthen the evidence base for the effectiveness of IPE and collaborative practice within the context of the evolving imperative of the Triple Aim.
Objectives. In 1999, the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Pharmacy first reported the development of a STLC Program for pharmacy residents. The primary goal of this program was to provide a forum for participants to gain knowledge of contemporary health professions and pharmacy education issues, to develop experience in teaching/learning, and to document accomplishment in this area. Methods. The STLC program was designed as an elective experience that would provide residents with training in various teaching methodologies and offer a forum through which accomplishment in the area could be documented. The program consists of 3 main requirements: attendance at formal seminars, completion of a requisite amount of small group and didactic evaluated teaching, and submission of a teaching portfolio. Results. Since its inception the program has grown beyond UK and now involves 1 other onsite program and two-way teleconferencing to 2 other residency programs. Since 1999, over 50 residents have been awarded certificates. Summary. Feedback from residency candidates, residents, and employers has been overwhelmingly positive. Future plans involve increased multidisciplinary involvement and continued outreach to other offsite programs.
Traditional workforce planning methodologies and interprofessional education (IPE) approaches will not address the significant challenges facing health care systems seeking to integrate services, eliminate waste and meet rising demand within fixed or shrinking budgets. This article describes how New Zealand's workforce planning approach could be used as a model by other countries to move toward needs-based, interprofessional workforce planning. Such an approach requires a paradigm shift to reframe health workforce planning away from a focus on shortages toward assessing how to more effectively deploy and retrain the existing workforce; away from silo-based workforce projection models toward methodologies that recognize professions' overlapping scopes of practice; and away from a focus on traditional health professions toward including both health and social care workers. We propose that IPE must develop new models of learning that are delivered in the context of practice. This will require a shift from today's predominant focus on preparing students in the pipeline to be collaboration-ready to designing clinical practice environments that support continuous learning that benefits not just learners, but patients, populations, and providers as well. We highlight the need for improved data and methods to evaluate IPE and call for better collaboration between health workforce planners and IPE stakeholders.
Interprofessional education (IPE) and collaborative practice (CP) have been prolific areas of inquiry exploring research questions mostly concerned with local program and project assessment. The actual sphere of influence of this research has been limited. Often discussed separately, this article places IPE and CP in the same conceptual space. The interface of these form a nexus where new knowledge creation may be facilitated. Rigorous research on IPE in relation to CP that is relevant to and framed by health system reform in the U.S. is the ultimate research goal of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education at the University of Minnesota. This paper describes the direction and scope for a focused and purposive IPECP research agenda linked to improvement in health outcomes, contextualized by health care reform in the U.S. that has provided a revitalizing energy for this area of inquiry. A research agenda articulates a focus, meaningful and robust questions, and a theory of change within which intervention outcomes are examined. Further, a research agenda identifies the practices the area of inquiry is interested in informing, and the types of study designs and analytic approaches amenable to carrying out the proposed work.
Background: There is currently a resurgence of interest in interprofessional education and collaborative practice (IPECP) and its potential to positively impact health outcomes at both the patient level and population level, healthcare delivery, and health professions education. This resurgence of interest led to the creation of the National Center on Interprofessional Collaborative Practice and Education in October 2012. Methods: This paper describes three intertwined knowledge generation strategies of the National Center on Interprofessional Practice and Education: (1) the development of a Nexus Incubator Network, (2) the undertaking of comparative effectiveness research, and (3) the creation of a National Center Data Repository. Results: As these strategies are implemented over time they will result in the production of empirically grounded knowledge regarding the direction and scope of the impact, if any, of IPECP on well-defined health and healthcare outcomes including the possible improvement of the patient experience of care. Conclusions: Among the motivating factors for the National Center and the three strategies adopted and addressed herein is the need for rigorously produced, scientifically sound evidence regarding IPECP and whether or not it has the capacity to positively affect the patient experience of care, the health of populations, and the per capita cost of healthcare.
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