Promoting Hearing Health Collaboration Through an Interprofessional Education Experience

Interprofessional education activity to improve communication with older adults

Given the increasing older adult population, students in the health professions need to be trained to work in interprofessional teams to effectively interact with and manage communication difficulties in this population. Through an interprofessional education case study activity focused on communication with a complex older adult patient, 92 students from Communication Sciences and Disorders and Nursing learned about interprofessional collaboration, age-related hearing loss, and communication strategies. Participants completed a knowledge assessment quiz, the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale (IPAS), and a post-activity evaluation survey. Pre- and post-activity results revealed a significant improvement in participants' knowledge of age-related hearing loss and its effects on communication, and significant improvements related to attitudes toward interprofessional education and shared learning on the IPAS. The findings of this experience indicate that the activity was effective in educating students about age-related hearing loss and communicating with older adults. The activity was valuable and had a positive impact on students' attitudes toward collaboration.

Perceptions of the Scope of Practice of Audiology

PURPOSE

The primary purpose of this study was to determine which scope of practice roles and responsibilities are attributed to the profession of audiology (AUD) relative to other health care disciplines by a group of health and human services faculty and students.

METHOD

An online survey inquiring about participant knowledge of different health professions' scopes of practice, and experience with and attitude toward the profession of AUD, was sent to faculty and students in the Western Michigan University College of Health and Human Services. Students also completed two subscales of the Interprofessional Attitudes Scale. Descriptive statistics and chi-square and Kruskal-Wallis analyses evaluating response differences between groups are presented.

RESULTS

Thirty-six faculty and 118 students (48 graduate and 70 undergraduate) completed the survey. AUD was the profession most often associated with all hearing-related scope of practice activities. Speech-language pathology was often associated with hearing-related scope of practice activities. Audiologists were less commonly associated with vestibular, balance, and mobility scope of practice activities. Group was significant for four scope of practice activities. About half of respondents indicated they knew nothing or a little about AUD, and a majority had no or rare interactions with audiologists in class or clinic. Only about half of participants responded they were likely or very likely to refer patients to an audiologist.

CONCLUSION

Increased knowledge of the scope of practice and exposure to the profession of AUD may benefit other health care professionals and patients, possibly leading to increased interprofessional practice and an increased number of appropriate referrals.

A Cytomegalovirus (CMV) Case Study to Promote Interprofessional Learning (IPL) Between Audiology and Biomedical Science Students in Higher Education

Modern and effective patient care requires specialist healthcare professionals working together. Interprofessional learning (IPL) seeks to provide opportunities for different healthcare disciplines to learn with, from and about each other. This study focused on the delivery and evaluation of a cytomegalovirus (CMV) case study workshop to facilitate IPL between two Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) regulated courses: Biomedical Science and Audiology. The 2 h online workshop consisted of 1) defining the roles, responsibilities and skills of the two healthcare professions, 2) the structure of the Biomedical Science and Audiology departments, 3) routes to HCPC registration, 4) core curriculum of both degree programmes and 5) interpreting interdisciplinary data related to a CMV patient case. The workshop was interactive, with the virtual learning environment promoting peer discussions and the use of online polling. Student responses were collected through an online questionnaire. A total of 108 respondents completed a post-event survey and Mann-Whitney U tests revealed there were no significant differences in the responses between the two student cohorts in response to each of the survey statements (p > 0.05). A total of 82.4% of students agreed that they need to know the role of other healthcare professionals for their future practice, whilst 84.2% agreed that the CMV case study was a good format to facilitate effective IPL. A total of 93.5% of respondents recognised the importance of both professions in diagnosing a patient with CMV. Thematic analysis identified four common themes, including appreciation of shared roles, recognition of similarities in registration pathways, working together to provide holistic patient care and the role of clinicians in the patient journey. This novel collaboration between Biomedical Science and Audiology facilitated effective IPL whilst meeting the interprofessional education HCPC requirements. Collaborative working is an essential component of delivering effective patient care and allied healthcare degrees need to provide opportunities within their curriculum to foster this. We hope this study encourages other higher education institutes to expand and develop their current IPL activities to include a broader spectrum of healthcare courses.

Developing an interprofessional education programme for a health science faculty in South Africa: A multi-method study

Objective

Work-ready graduates need to be equipped with expertise and therefore, critical changes are required in the curricula for health professions. Here, we aimed to review the design of an interprofessional education programme (IPE) with regards to appropriateness and implementation for the Faculty of Health Sciences at North-West University, South Africa.

Methods

This study employed a sequential multi-method design to develop an IPE programme for a health science faculty in South Africa. A scoping review was conducted to synthesise the structure, development and implementation processes of IPE programmes globally. This was followed by an analysis of IPE programmes from institutions on five continents. Subsequently, the perspectives of international experts on the development and implementation of IPE programmes were explored in a qualitative study. This was followed by a university context analysis and the development of a draft IPE programme was designed based on the data synthesised from all preliminary studies. The programme was presented to faculty to evaluate and provide input by applying a nominal group technique.

Results

For the scoping review, ten steps to the IPE programme development process were developed. For the qualitative document analysis, a step-by-step guide and to-do list were provided to guide educators in conceptualising, developing, implementing and reviewing their IPE programmes. For the qualitative exploratory descriptive design, four themes were identified after the analysis of transcripts. An optional 3-year IPE programme was developed to serve as a precursor for full credit integration of the IPE into the faculty of health science curricula during future development of the health science curricula.

Conclusion

The optional 3-year IPE programme developed will serve as a precursor for the integration of a credit-bearing IPE programme into the Faculty of Health Sciences curricula during future development.

Audiology, an Important Contributor to Interprofessional Holistic Care: An Interprofessional Collaborative Case Example

PURPOSE

Interprofessional collaboration improves health outcomes, enhances health care satisfaction, and facilitates more effective use of resources. Interprofessional collaborators increasingly understand and value other professions. A.T. Still University provides students from multiple programs with opportunities to develop interprofessional collaboration skills. This research note presents details of one such interprofessional education (IPE) opportunity, a collaborative case. Audiology was part of this case in two ways: Audiologic details of the simulated patient were provided to all students, and audiology students participated in the experience. The results of this involvement are reported. This research note is primarily descriptive in nature; however, the question of whether students viewed their interprofessional competencies as improving following the IPE experience was explored using a validated self-report tool, the Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS).

METHOD

A total of 23 students completed the ICCAS. Additionally, student case presentations were reviewed and audiology-based recommendations were tallied.

RESULTS

Highly significant differences (p ≤ .01) for all 20 items on the ICCAS were observed for differences in self-assessed interprofessional skills knowledge. All but one of the 12 teams made specific recommendations regarding the communication needs of the patient.

CONCLUSIONS

Students viewed their own competencies related to interprofessional collaboration as improved following the collaborative case experience. Overall, the collaborative case experience was effective in providing students with the opportunity to develop a breadth of skills needed for interprofessional collaboration. Providing audiologic information in the case history prompted all but one team to consider patient communication needs.

Attitude adjustments after global health inter-professional student team experiences

How medical inter-professional (IP) education should be introduced to students is still a matter of research. We evaluated IP student attitudes before and after a busy "hands-on" clinical experience.During 3 separate trips, first/second year medical and physician assistant students and third/fourth year nursing students traveled to Central America to work together for 1 week in an underserved clinical setting. Student opinions on inter-professional education were obtained before and after Brigade-1 using the Readiness for Inter-professional Learning Scale validated questionnaire. From these results, a modified version of the survey was developed that included quantitative and qualitative responses. For brigades-2 and -3, students received this modified version of the survey pre and post brigade. Quantitative data was analyzed via paired student t test, and qualitative data was analyzed to identify emerging themes using constant comparative methodology by three separate investigators.No significant quantitative differences between IP student groups were observed in their evaluation of the importance of inter-professional education either before or after the brigades. Qualitative data noted pre-brigade expectations of positive IP, experiential and patient-centered cultural learning. Pre- and post-brigade student perspectives maintained a strong belief that high functioning IP care benefited the patient. Post-brigade perspectives revealed a shift in attitude from purely positive expectations to more practical aspects of teamwork, respect, and interpersonal relationships.Students believe that patient care benefits from IP collaboration. After a busy clinical experience requiring collaboration, students realized that functional teams require appropriate skills, roles, and respectful interpersonal relationships.

12 tips for developing inter-professional education (IPE) in healthcare

This article was migrated. The article was marked as recommended. As healthcare increases in complexity there is growing awareness that interprofessional teamwork underpins safe and effective care delivery. However, in order to collaborate in interprofessional teams, health professionals must also train in them. Despite increasing interest in IPE amongst healthcare educators, and positive comments from students, barriers to its implementation remain. The authors of this article come from different healthcare professions and have overcome the challenges of developing IPE to devise several successful activities. This article outlines the educational benefits of IPE and provides guidance for surmounting obstacles to its implementation, supported by examples from our own experience.