Reflective Account Of Inter Professional Education

As healthcare advances and becomes more convoluted there is an increase need for interprofessional collaboration to provide quality and patient-centered care. According to the Institute of Medicine (2015), not one profession can lead and expand interprofessional collaboration independently. It requires collaboration of all team members working to their highest level of functioning to provide patient centered care. Interprofessional collaboration involves healthcare professionals from multi-disciplinary teams with one common goal of providing excellent care to patients. To provide the best patient-centered and team based care all of the team members have to be in sync and willing

In interprofessional care, it is important that the health care providers build skills that enhance interprofessional communication and interaction no matter what model is practiced. Successful interprofessional communication is a necessary competency that can ensure achievements of outcomes, improvement of team functioning, efficiency, and individual value (Interprofessional Education Collaborative Expert Panel, 2011). Training, simulation experiences, group projects, and personal interactions with other staff members can facilitating positive or negative interactions that can affect communication. To ensure that successful interprofessional communication and interaction, much consideration should also be given to the environment

The Institute of Medicine (2003) recommended incorporating core competencies into the education for all health professionals resulting in better quality education; therefore, ultimately improving patient care. One of the core competencies was to “work in interdisciplinary teams” in order to achieve the most favorable outcomes of patients. An interprofessional team is defined by Lakhani, Benzies, & Hayden (2012) as a group of people who have “complimentary skills and are committed to a common purpose for which they have shared responsibility.” According to Nancarrow et al.

In healthcare today, where patient outcomes are dependent on effective interprofessional education, interprofessional collaboration and interdisciplinary teamwork (Milstead 2015 p 261), there is the need for better preparation of health professionals in teamwork (“Team 4” concept). The purpose of interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional collaboration related to “Team 4” concept is to show that healthcare providers and health professionals are just as important to patient outcomes as the physician (Milstead 2015 p 264). According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the ideas and concepts of IPE, is health professionals from many disciplines working together as a team towards the end goal of a better health outcome for the patient are pivotal, and must be included in medical education for all health care providers and health professional (Milstead 2015 p 261-264).

From this class I understood that Interprofessional Education (IPE) is when two or more profession learn from, with and about each other. This collaboration is important in order to fulfill the patients’ needs that are becoming more complex, multi-faced and challenging day by day. It is also clear to me that no single profession in healthcare can adequately address all the demands of patients. Therefore, partnership between teams is required to provide a safe, timely, effective and equitable patient care. To have a smooth collaboration, it is necessary to learn from each other’s specializations, strength and experiences. In the real world, healthcare is an interdisciplinary team effort to provide the best possible service to a patient based on evidence based practices. Considering this, I had the

Interprofessional competency education is essential to patient quality outcomes because as stated in the Institute of medicine’s report patients have complex medical issues that can best be addressed by interprofessional teams. By training current and future health care workers to work in such teams we facilitate the model and the results is improved healthcare outcomes for patients. The model help professionals to understand the important role each person adds to the team.

While there are a number of models on group development such as Tuckman or Gersick (1988) this office group is in the early stages of group formation regardless of which model is used. However, observing the Tuckman model, the Forming stage determining the accepted behavior, real tasks and rules of the group could become complicated, since such factors as: having multiple memberships (e.g. organization, social events); prior experience with group members in other contexts (monthly area meetings); and impressions of organization philosophies, goals and policies may affect how the members initially behave in the newly formed group (Wood et. al. 2010, p. 218). This stage and the Storming stage will be important in determining how timely and effectively the group can reach the Initial and Total integration stages to become a mature, organized and well-functioning group.

Weiss, D., Tillen, F. J., & Morgan, M. J. (2014). The interprofessional health care team: Leadership and development. Bu

The National Safety and Quality Health Service (NSQHS) Standard 2 Partnering with Consumers requires all health professionals to provide consumer-centred care and to design the care in partnership with the patient and the family (Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in health Care, 2012). The NSQHS Standards (2012) identified patient and family-centred care and engagement as one of the national priorities. As such, in order to improve patients’ safety outcomes and reduce hospital acquired conditions and readmissions and provide client centred services, the IPE recognized the need for effective interprofessional teams to collaborate and engage patients and families by implementing IPE core structures and processes (Brewer & Jones, 2013). The Curtin University’s ICF encompasses five interprofessional capabilities: “reflection, communication, team function, conflict resolution, and role clarification” (Brewer & Jones, 2013, p. e47). The purpose of ICF is to guide and assist health care students for collaborative practice to deliver safe and high quality care, and client-centred care (Curtin University, 2011). Therefore, health science students are expected to be competent in all skills and meet the criteria outlined in Curtin University’ ICF.

Teams are diverse, spanning from all backgrounds imaginable. They require proper guidance, as well as adaptability in terms of its members. In the field of medicine, everyone from physicians to emergency medical technicians all play for the same collective team. Working together in harmony not only reduces stress for all those involved, but provides better treatment for patients. At Western University, the delicacy and vital nature of teamwork is understood and held to a high standard with interprofessional education during the first year. This education is invaluable, as it has the potential to prevent injuries and even deaths of patients.

Within health and social care, it is uncommon that an individual one profession is able to meet the needs of an individual alone. Good patient outcomes are aided by skills and knowledge from other specialist and professions as well as our own (Ovretveit, 2000). For this reason, Interprofessional education (IPE) has been integrated into undergraduate healthcare courses to enhance the quality of practice within the healthcare sector (Freeth et al, 2008) and when IPE is working to an optimum level, it can be highly effective in practice.

The four stages of group development also known as ‘life cycle’ has been developed by the respected psychologist Bruce W. Tuckman in 1965. He observed the behavior of small groups in different working environments and concluded that individuals need to pass through the four stages of group development in order to achieve their best results (Chimaera Consulting, 2001). He is well known for his article “Developmental Sequence in small groups”. The four phrases of group development are forming, storming, norming and performing. Later in 1977, a fifth stage known as adjourning was added by Bruce Tuckman and Mary-Ann Jensen (Hingst and Raymond, 2006).

Tuckman proposes that groups develop via five stages; forming, storming, norming, performing and finally adjourning (Archee, Gurney, & Mohan, 2013a). The first stage, known as forming, involves clarifying the task and purpose of the group, and identifying boundaries of both the task and interpersonal behaviour (Archee et al., 2013a). For the presentation task we were randomly allocated into groups. This worried me greatly as I have struggled in the past with group members who do not contribute equally or see the task as important as other group members. To avoid this problem, the group collectively determined and agreed upon a number of ground rules. For example, we decided that all group members were expected to contribute equally to the presentation, all group members were expected to attend and contribute at all group meetings, and all group members would adhere to agreed upon deadlines. Having failed to do this in previous group assignments, this clarification stage

Inter-professional education is a collaborative approach and is the key element in providing patients with the best evidence-based practices to meet the diverse student population. Inter-professional education refers to students from two or more professions coming together during their professional training so that inter-professional teams can address complex medical issues. These inter-professional team members bring their unique cultural diversity to the education environment. The influence of culture plays an integral role in inter-professional education. Inter-professional education provides a student the ability to share skills and knowledge between professions, allowing for a deeper understanding of shared values, respect for the roles of other professionals’ perspectives. Hence, inter-professional education is influenced by people from different culture, collaborating in various professional settings. This section of the paper will discuss the profession of a social worker, physical therapist, and nursing and will highlight their unique cultural beliefs, values, and practices and how they integrate into the education environment.

Working in inter-professional groups under supervision of a multi-disciplinary faculty emerged as a trademark of the MSc HQ program. The word ‘group’ appeared in every syllabi of the MSc HQ program, and 85% of faculty mentioned that inter-professional group work is a key component of their course. One faculty member went so far as to say that the programs’ objectives cannot be practically achieved until and unless students learn how engage as members of interprofessional teams. The wisdom of this contention is collaborated by scholarship showing that interprofessional education improves teamwork, communication skills and patient care (Cohen et al., 2016; Reilly et al., 2014; Brock et al., 2013; Young-Xu et al.,