Interdisciplinary health professional education in rural New Mexico: a 10 year experience

Abstract

The New Mexico Rural Health Interdisciplinary Program was initiated in 1990 to meet the need for interdisciplinary health professional student training and to advance the recruitment and retention of health professionals in rural healthcare shortage areas. This paper describes the New Mexico programme, including its interdisciplinary problem‐based learning format and mechanisms for generating community involvement, and reports the evaluation findings and lessons learned from 10 years of programme experience. The New Mexico programme utilizes student‐centred, problem‐based learning (PBL) as an educational format and currently involves 12 healthcare disciplines in six communities throughout the state. Evaluation has focused on differences in student attitudes about and confidence in interdisciplinary and rural practice prior to and upon completion of the programme, as well as change in student expectations of consulting with other health professionals. A pre‐test/post‐test survey was used to assess change. The growth of the programme provides some evidence of its success. Results indicate a consistent change in attitude of participants towards greater confidence to work in rural settings and with interdisciplinary teams and an increased expectation to consult with other healthcare professionals. The lessons of this 10 year training experience include the compatibility of PBL to an interdisciplinary training model, the importance of scheduling to facilitate optimal participation, the need for a dedicated core faculty, the worth of informal as well as formal interdisciplinary student interaction, the need to cultivate community relationships and support and the challenge of programme evaluation.

Grounding theories ofW(e)Learn: A framework for online interprofessional education

“…Many researchers have argued that ''by learning and working together in educational settings, healthcare professionals will be able to work more effectively with one another in occupational settings'' (Rice, 2000, p. 66). Healthcare reform initiatives are recommending the redesign of health professional education both in pre-and post-qualification situations to integrate the concepts of IPC (Geller et al, 2002). An evolving framework for IPE has been developed in Canada to guide research and educational efforts (D'Amour & Oandasan, 2005).…”

Second year scepticism: Pre-qualifying health and social care students' midpoint self-assessment, attitudes and perceptions concerning interprofessional learning and working

“…Most interprofessional education to date has been evaluated in terms of learner reaction, modification of attitudes/perceptions and acquisition of knowledge/skills (Freeth, Hammick, Koppel, Reeves & Barr, 2002). Recent interprofessional literature reports on investigations concerning the style of educational delivery and students' attitudes towards interprofessional learning (Hind et al, 2003;Johnson, 2003, Reynolds, 2003TunstallPedoe, Rink & Hilton, 2003), and exploration of students' attitudes to interprofessional care delivery, professional identities and stereotyping of other professions (Barnes, Carpenter & Dickinson, 2000;Geller et al, 2002;Hind et al, 2003). In addition to the above, Freeth et al (2002) suggest that educational initiatives should be evaluated in terms of behavioural change, change in organizational practice and benefits to patients/clients; this is far more problematic.…”

Vers un modèle de collaboration novateur pour l’enseignement interprofessionnel : conception d’un atelier en ligne pour stimuler le travail en milieu rural

“…Toutefois, certains chercheurs croient que le changement de paradigme qui conduit à l'adoption des pratiques de collaboration est lent et ardu en raison de l'échec du système d'éducation à évoluer dans ce sens pour répondre aux besoins des milieux (Barr et ai, 2005;Ivey et ai, 1988;Opie, 1998 (Geller et al, 2002;McNair étal, 2001;Parsell et Bligh, 1999).…”