Designing and developing a continuing interprofessional education model

Abstract

BackgroundInterprofessional education is considered as one of the approaches in educating learners in the health system that increases interprofessional collaboration and improves the quality of patient care.PurposeThis study sought to design an interprofessional continuing education model.MethodsThis study was conducted in three stages. In the first stage, a systematic review of literature and search of databases were conducted to identify the common models of interprofessional continuing education and to extract the elements used in these models. In the second stage, specialists in interprofessional continuing education were interviewed in relation to the features of elements derived from the first stage. In the third stage, the model of interprofessional continuing education was designed using the results of the first and second stages.ResultsSeven models were obtained. Five themes, including the subject of interprofessional continuing education, objectives, content, learning strategy, and evaluation strategies, were extracted from them. Specialists stated interprofessional collaboration, needs of community and learners, focus on patient, using interactive teaching methods, and feedback as the main features of these five themes.ConclusionThe results of this study showed that providing a framework and model regulated in interprofessional continuing education programs can help design these programs.

Medical student reflections on interprofessional education

“…As medical students who have recently undertaken an IPE module at King’s College London, we believe we are well placed to comment on this paper and how it relates to our experiences at medical school. We wholeheartedly agree with Safabakhsh et al’s 1 idea that good IPE is essential for patient care and that a clear framework, such as that set out in the paper, can help achieve this.…”

“…IPE is a vital piece of the curriculum that unfortunately does not get much attention at medical school, often resulting in an unstructured approach. We hope that more frameworks, such as that presented in the article by Safabakhsh et al, 1 encourages a more systematic approach to IPE so that more of us can act as productive members of the team for the benefit of the patient.…”

“…We thank Safabakhsh et al 1 for their thought-provoking article on interprofessional education (IPE), a topic that we do not believe receives enough attention in medical literature. As medical students who have recently undertaken an IPE module at King’s College London, we believe we are well placed to comment on this paper and how it relates to our experiences at medical school.…”

“…However, we disagree with one phrase in particular from the original article: that if team members “know their responsibilities well, they [can] make fewer mistakes than others.” 1 We believe this misses the point of teamwork, and makes it seem like the goal is to avoid individual blame rather than work together to ensure the best possible level of care for the patient. The “Swiss cheese model” was built to highlight this idea that individual mistakes are inevitable, 2 and the only way to avoid poor patient outcomes is for each individual to know how they fit into the bigger picture so that individual mistakes are compensated for.…”

Leading Research in Interprofessional Health Education and Collaborative Medical Practice

“…Interprofessional education (IPE) is an essential process for improving collaborative practice and the quality of patient, client care [1]. Collaborative practice in the form of teamwork needs nurturing and supporting if it is so achieve its full potential to improve the health and well being of patients and service users [2]. In some countries the IPE program is fully integrated and compulsory across the four-year curriculum of the health sciences faculty [3].…”