Designing and evaluating an interprofessional education conference approach to antimicrobial education

Abstract

Background Arguably, Medical School curricula are deficient in learning opportunities related to the safe and effective use of medicines, in particular antimicrobials. Infection management is complex and multidisciplinary, and learning opportunities should reflect these principles. Aligned to the complexity of the subject matter, simulation and interprofessional based teaching are methods that can foster the collaborative skills required of future healthcare professionals. There have been calls to develop these methods in the teaching of safe prescribing and the management of infections; however, reports of such studies are limited. Methods We developed an interprofessional education (IPE) conference for second year undergraduate medical and pharmacy students based in the North East of England. We considered contact theory in the design of three small group interprofessional workshops, on the broad themes of antimicrobial stewardship, infection management and patient safety. A mixed methods approach assessed students’ attitudes towards IPE, barriers and facilitators of learning, and perceived learning gains. Qualitative data from workshop evaluation forms were analysed thematically, while quantitative data were analysed descriptively and differences between medical and pharmacy cohorts analysed using unpaired two-tailed t-tests. Results 226/352 students returned the workshop evaluation forms (66% of pharmacy students, 62% of medical students). 281/352 students responded to a series of Likert scale questions on the value of interprofessional education (88% of pharmacy students, 70% of medical students). Students reported acquisition of knowledge and skills, including concepts and procedures related to infection management and antimicrobial prescribing, and the development of problem-solving and critical evaluation skills. Students reflected on their attitude towards interprofessional collaboration. They reported a greater understanding of the roles of other healthcare professionals, reflected on the importance of effective communication in ensuring patient safety, and were more confident to work in interprofessional teams after the conference. Conclusions A robust IPE event, theoretically underpinned by contact theory and developed collaboratively, achieved interprofessional learning at scale and helped develop healthcare professionals willing to collaborate across disciplines. The resources, and evaluation insights based on the 3P (presage, process, and product) model of learning and teaching, will be of value to other educators who seek to develop theoretically-sound IPE interventions.

Interprofessional Collaboration between ICU Physicians, Staff Nurses, and Hospital Pharmacists Optimizes Antimicrobial Treatment and Improves Quality of Care and Economic Outcome

“…The first step in the development of any interprofessional antibiotic stewardship (ABS) program is to build an interprofessional and multidisciplinary team encompassing the necessary expertise in the complex management of infections and interprofessional learning. Interprofessional education is an approach recommended for improving the prescribing practice of antibiotics [21,39,40]. We cannot exclude that-in addition to the implementation of our interprofessional ABS program-other practice changes, for example, better use of VAP prevention or implementation of new ICU guidelines contributed to the observed positive effects on antibiotic application density, expenditure, and quality of care.…”

“…Furthermore, we added ABS education to the specific in-house curricula for students of medicine, pharmacy, and nursing [18]. To adequately educate healthcare professionals and students for a global society, we suggest expanding and optimizing interprofessional ABS [19][20][21][22].…”

Multidisciplinary Collaboration for the Optimization of Antibiotic Prescription: Analysis of Clinical Cases of Pneumonia between Emergency, Internal Medicine, and Pharmacy Services

“…Thus, the evaluation team included professionals from different departments (emergency, internal medicine, and pharmacy). Employment of interprofessional and simulation pedagogies allowed the exploration of the contextual factors that affect the safe and effective management of infections [ 18 ]. The evaluation criteria were based on the study of prevalence and adequacy of hospital use of antimicrobials in Spain—PAUSATE [ 19 ] (in which study several researchers from the team participated).…”

Insights into Delivering Cross-Cultural Medical Education in the UK and Malaysia

“…Large-scale IPE events for medical students operate in Newcastle, but the development of similar learning events in NUMed has been challenging [ 83 , 93 ]. The NUMed campus is geographically isolated and does not operate other healthcare profession degree programmes.…”