National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education 2023: reflecting back, looking forward

The United States (US) National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education was funded at the University of Minnesota to serve as the National Coordinating Center for Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPECP) in the US In 2012, the funders had specific expectations for operationalizing their vision that included scholarship, programs and leadership as an unbiased, neutral convener to align education with health system redesign. While US specific, the National Center benefited from and contributed to the international maturity of the field over the past decade. Through its various services and technology platforms, the National Center has a wide reach nationally and internationally. This perspective provides a unique view of the field in the US with observations and implications for the future.

From the Nexus vision to the NexusIPE™ learning model

The Nexus vision of simultaneously transforming health professions education and healthcare delivery to achieve Triple (now Quadruple) Aim outcomes was first articulated in the 2012 proposal and funding of the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education (National Center). Over the past decade, the National Center has worked with over 70 sites implementing large scale and practice-based interprofessional practice and education (IPE) programs. Because what is needed to implement the Nexus to achieve Quadruple Aim outcomes was not well understood in 2012, the National Center took a social innovations and developmental evaluation approach. This iterative method led to the development of the National Center NexusIPE™ Learning Model that adapts the 3-P high-level stages (Presage, Process, and Product), proposed as a framework for IPE by Barr and colleagues. National Center collaborators' lessons learned about the Nexus vision are highlighted in this issue and provide real-world examples of elements of the NexusIPETM Learning Model. Reflecting on ten years of experience, the National Center leaders recognize the need for Nexus transformation and the relevance of the NexusIPETM Learning Model today as education and health systems grapple with mounting workforce challenges. The model provides opportunities to address growing workforce shortages, provide equitable care that leads to health, and support the well-being of practice teams in the face of challenges such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Interprofessional clinical training based in a federally qualified health center: a short report

A.T. Still University and HealthPoint, a federally qualified health center, worked together to develop novel interprofessional educational clinical experiences for dental and medical students. This short report is focused on evaluating outcomes related to student and patient experiences. Dental and medical faculty designed the program to be as hands on as possible while minimizing disruption to clinic flow. Second-year medical and fourth-year dental students worked together to assess the physical and oral health of the patients. One hundred forty-eight students participated. Of 429 total patients assessed, 83 were referred from the medical clinic to the dental clinic. Caries was present in 24.9% of patients. Overwhelmingly, the patients enjoyed having teams of students care for them. These types of clinical interprofessional experiences give students valuable opportunities to learn with, from, and about each other while providing hands-on care to patients.

A Randomized Study Using Telepresence Robots for Behavioral Health in Interprofessional Practice and Education

Background: The events of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic forced the world to adopt telemedicine frameworks to comply with isolation and stay-at-home regulations. Telemedicine, in various forms, has been used by patients and medical professionals for quite some time, especially telepsychiatry. To examine the efficacy and role of telesimulation as a method to educate health sciences students via telepresence robots. The study recruited students from the above health science disciplines. All participants were trained to administer a contextual interview to a standardized patient (SP) for mental health concerns. Methods: The completion of the contextual interview observation form adult (CIOF-A), National Aeronautics and Space Administration Task Load Index, self-efficacy in patient centeredness questionnaire (SEPCQ), and communication skills attitude scale with or without a telepresence robot. All participants completed baseline metrics and were trained to conduct a contextual interview to an SP. Researchers block-randomized the participants to either the telepresence robot group (TP) or in-person (IP) group. Results: The study recruited n = 43 participants to the IP group (n = 21) or TP group (n = 22). Mean participant demographics of age were 25.3 (±1.9) years in the IP group and 24.3 (±2.1) years for the TP group. Mean and standard deviation scores with effect sizes in CIOF-A scores IP: 0.05 (±1.91) and TP: -0.45 (±1.71), Cohen's d = 0.28; SEPCQ-Patient Domain scores IP: 0.42 (±4.69) and TP: 0.50 (±7.18), Cohen's d = 0.01; change in SEPCQ-Sharing Domain scores IP: 0.53 (±5.10) and TP: 0.91 (±9.98), Cohen's d = 0.05. These effect sizes will inform future studies and appropriate sample sizes. Conclusion: These data indicate that health sciences students utilizing a telepresence robot in an SP scenario to perform a behavioral health screening felt as comfortable and competent as those health sciences students performing the same behavioral health screening in person. ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT03661372.

Preparing Pharmacists for Collaborative/Integrated Health Settings

Pharmacy practice is changing to accommodate the need for pharmacists to be better team members in newly emerging collaborative care and integrated health systems. Pharmacy schools could lead this change by educating students to be effective participants in these relatively new models of care. Schools are encouraged to follow the approach outlined in the recent guidance published by the Health Professions Accreditors Collaborative (HPAC) for interprofessional practice and education (“the new IPE”). This approach includes articulating an IPE plan, establishing goals, assessing student achievement of the necessary IPE competencies, developing educational plans that are multi-faceted and longitudinal, and modifying the existing assessment/evaluation process to ensure the quality of the IPE effort. These curricular decisions should be based on existing and new research on the effectiveness of IPE on student’s attitudes, knowledge, skills, and behavior. A key decision is how to create effective interactions between pharmacy students and those of other professions. Educational emphasis should be directed toward team building skills, not just individual competencies. The pharmacy faculty probably need to enhance their teaching abilities to accommodate this change, such as learning new technology (e.g., simulations, managing online exchanges) and demonstrating a willingness to teach students from other professions.