Impact of the first interprofessional education undergraduate program in Spain

The Application of Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Model in the Assessment of Interprofessional Simulation Activities Involving Pharmacy Students: A Systematic Review

OBJECTIVES

To our knowledge, this systematic review is the first to assess pharmacy-involved interprofessional education (IPE) simulation activities in establishing current methodological effectiveness using Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Model. This is a training evaluative model that assesses educational training activities according to 4 levels: reaction, learning, behavior, and results.

FINDINGS

From the 3108 studies retrieved, 14 studies met the inclusion criteria. Thirteen studies achieved levels 1 and 2 of Kirkpatrick's Evaluation Model, and 1 achieved level 3. One study only achieved level 1. Single-group, pre- and posttest studies were the most common study designs (n = 9), and 1 study followed a longitudinal approach. IPE duration ranged from 45 min to 5 days, and most of the studies were conducted in the United States (n = 10). Most studies alluded to an underpinning theory behind IPE simulation design and chose surveys as their mode of data collection.

SUMMARY

The most common limitation reported was the uneven representation of professions and a lack of data on the studies' effect in practice. To demonstrate the achievement of outcomes in relation to levels 3 and 4, there is a need for longitudinal studies of IPE simulation activities. Although evaluative studies showed a positive response to IPE simulation at a basic level, there is a lack of effective integration of theory behind IPE design. Future studies need to consider this when setting the infrastructure of IPE design, as well as making efforts to mobilize stakeholders in the workplace to help facilitate transfer of learning.

Interprofessional Education: Current State in Psychology Training

Healthcare reform has led to the consideration of interprofessional team-based, collaborative care as a way to provide comprehensive, high-quality care to patients and families. Interprofessional education is the mechanism by which the next generation health professional workforce is preparing for the future of health care-team-based, collaborative care. This literature review explored the extent and content of published studies documenting Interprofessional Education (IPE) activities with psychology trainees across learner level. A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted of studies describing IPE involving psychology learners. Electronic databases (MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsychINFO, and EMBASE) were searched for the following terms: inter/multi-professional education/practice, inter/multidisciplinary education/practice, and psychology/psychologists. Thirty-seven articles were identified that included psychology in clinical outcome studies or other reviews of interprofessional education initiatives. The review addresses the nature of current IPE learning activities, the impact of IPE activities on participating trainees, opportunities for, and challenges of, involving psychology trainees in IPE, and future directions for research. This review illuminates the relative paucity of the literature about IPE in psychology training. Given the trend toward increasing team-based collaborative care, the limited inclusion of psychology in the IPE literature is concerning. The next generation of health professional trainees is learning about, from, and with each other with the objective of building collaboration and teamwork. Given the few articles documenting psychology trainees' involvement in IPE, future health professionals quite possibly will have limited understanding of, and contact with, psychologists. Our findings are a call to action for greater psychology involvement in IPE.

Interprofessional education in nursing: The impact of collaboration between physical and mental health care professionals

Objectives

Interprofessional collaboration in the training of nursing and psychology students helps provide students of both disciplines with the ability and competences they need to best attend to their patients. This study implemented and analyzed a method for developing the competences of each discipline in a scenario of joint clinical simulation that incorporates mental and physical health simultaneously, and measured the caring ability of the participating students.

Methods

Participants took a self-applied survey measuring their own caring ability. After, a clinical simulation was performed where nursing students performed clinical interviews on psychology students, who acted as standardized patients. Caring abilities were measured in the nursing students, and the psychology students implemented an intervention service measuring caring ability and brief - debrief simulation by coaching to nursing students.

Results

The results indicated that the self-applied questionnaire of caring ability resulted in scores significantly higher than what was measured by observers.

Conclusions

The results contribute to the development of protocols, training and collaborative work practices in interprofessional education, which allow the scaling of these competences.

Introduction of an interprofessional gynaecology surgical skills workshop for undergraduate medical and nursing students

BACKGROUND

Medical and nursing students may feel under-prepared to perform basic surgical and gynaecology procedural skills. There also remains scope within undergraduate programs to integrate interprofessional education, and better prepare students for interprofessional collaboration to improve patient care.

AIMS

A simulation-based gynaecology surgical skills workshop program was introduced for undergraduate medical and nursing students. The aim of this study was to explore students' perceptions of a simulation-based interprofessional gynaecological skills program, using students' pre- and post-workshop confidence in taught skills reported in a post-workshop questionnaire as an outcome measure.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One hundred and sixty undergraduate medical (n = 133) and nursing (n = 27) students attended the workshop program at a tertiary university in Melbourne, Australia. A survey was completed by all students immediately after the workshop, addressing students' perceptions of surgical education, the four skill-stations (gowning/gloving, suturing, intrauterine device insertion, and urethral catheterisation), and interprofessional education. A Wilcoxon signed-rank test was performed to compare students' pre- and post-workshop confidence scores.

RESULTS

Most medical and nursing students (86%) agreed their course should provide more structured surgical education. There was a statistically significant increase in post-workshop self-reported confidence scores for medical and nursing students in all four taught skills. Confidence in interprofessional behaviours also improved in both cohorts, but the improvement in nursing students did not reach statistical significance.

CONCLUSIONS

Simulation-based, interprofessional, gynaecological surgery skills workshops are practical and valuable additions to undergraduate medical and nursing curricula. Further research should explore long-term retention of procedural skills and changes in interprofessional attitudes in clinical practice.