A multisite collaborative for the development of interdisciplinary education in continuous improvement for health professions students

Abstract

In 1994, The Institute for Healthcare Improvement, in Boston, Massachusetts, formed the Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative (the Collaborative). The mission of the Collaborative is to create an interdisciplinary teaching and learning environment in which future health professionals learn to work together to improve health care delivery. Apart from emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, the Collaborative focuses on teaching the methods of continuous improvement (CI), a system of management first developed for manufacturing industries that is increasingly being used in the management of health care delivery. The Collaborative consists of four local interdisciplinary teams (LITs): the Cleveland LIT, the "George" LIT (a collaboration between George Washington University in Washington, D.C., and George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia), the South Carolina LIT, and the Pennsylvania LIT; and a coordinating committee. This paper describes each LIT's approach to achieving the Collaborative's commitment to give health professions students the opportunity to work in interdisciplinary teams to learn about and practice CI methods, training the Collaborative believes will enable them to be effective providers in a variety of health care systems. The paper describes the overall goals of the Collaborative, presents reports from the four LITs, and discusses common lessons learned.

Interdisciplinary benefits in Project MAINSTREAM: A promising health professions educational model to address global substance abuse

“…Overall our results agree closely with previous reports of interdisciplinary health professional education focused on other (non-substance abuse) content (Breitbart et al, 1988;Gordon et al, 1996;Holt et al, 2000;Horne & Medley, 2001;Matthews et al, 2001; Cooper et al, 2001;Chatterlee, 2002;Cleary & Howell, 2003). However, we did not find that ''some disciplines don't work well together'' as concluded by Ruebling et al (2000).…”

Changing Educational Paradigms to Prepare Allied Health Professionals for the 21st Century

“…The Interdisciplinary Professional Education Collaborative (IPEC) enrolled students from ve universities (Gordon et al, 1996;Bellack et al, 1997;Horak et al, 1998). The IPEC allowed students to participate in learning activities before beginning patient care activities.…”

A Quality Improvement Activity to Promote Interprofessional Collaboration Among Health Professions Students

“…[11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19] In addition to these approaches, the combination of lectures and small group exercises is viewed as an effective approach to transfer competencies associated with improved quality care. 20 The purpose of this paper is to report on the development and evaluation of a classroom-based curriculum designed to promote interprofessional competencies by allowing undergraduate students from various health professions to work together on system-based problems using quality improvement methods and tools to improve patient-centred care.…”