Clinical Care Planning, Interprofessional Course (CCPIC): Real-Time Practice for Students on a Health Care Team

Abstract

The goal of this course is to prepare students for planning patient-centered care within an interprofessional team. Students gain experience on a team creating an intervention and engage in a Clinical Observership session of real-time interdisciplinary team-driven patient care in the emergency department, an analog for future interprofessional relations in students’ careers. Evidence suggests interprofessional collaborative practice significantly improves patient outcomes in reduced mortality, increased patient safety, and enhanced quality-of- life. Key elements of successful implementation of interprofessional education are identified as increasing knowledge of other disciplines’ roles and responsibilities, breaking down discipline-specific curriculums, defining individual competencies, building skills in team collaboration, acknowledging the patient as the expert, and developing improved communication strategies. Through the implementation of key elements of IPE, students from five disciplines (medicine, nursing, pharmacy, physical and occupational therapy) work in small teams to create a patient-centered intervention. Videotaped, standardized patients provide the case scenario for each team. New this year is the emergency department Observership Session for all students. Student teams present their care-plan to a panel of interprofessional clinicians who gives feedback followed by discussion. Outcomes include pretest-posttest on perception of professional roles, written comprehensive patient-centered plan of care, reflection paper, and a standardized evaluation of the course. Approximately 100 students have participated in this course, most very satisfied, commenting on their increased knowledge of other roles and noting change of attitudes towards other professions. Still they crave real experience with patients. Students functioning face-to-face on an interprofessional team and observing a clinical team in context is the prelude to future clinical care. Team functioning takes practice-this is being incorporated in novel first-hand learning activities. With experience from this course, in their educational context with additional real-time team observation, students learn and receive constructive feedback. They practice team functioning, preparing them for practice. Learning Objectives: 1. Provide a unique example of interprofessional behavior experienced in real time by students functioning in teams with fellow students and during observation of clinical teams enacting patient care. 2. Identify specific curriculum strategies developing students’ interprofessional team functioning. 3. Apply IPE principles connecting classroom and clinical