An emulation model in critical thinking used to develop learning outcomes in inter professional practice

Abstract

Interprofessional education (IPE) and interprofessional practice (IPP) are essential for the comprehensive care of patients. A goal of this paper is to articulate learning outcomes likely to improve patient outcomes. Yet learning outcomes in IPE are “systematically lacking” in consistency. Objective An approach offered here and the main purpose of this paper is to develop and implement an IPE learning outcome by applying emulation concepts from the education literature. In dental situations, emulation has been used to derive the thought process of the expert succinctly enough for the novice to apply to the next patient. Methods The expert's thought process thus becomes the learning outcome, the learning guide, and the assessment instrument. In IPE/IPP, several experts make up the team. The resulting learning outcome is the collection of key questions from respective health care team members. Team members are primary care, pharmacy, nursing, social work, nutrition, and dentistry. The resulting list of questions has not been reported and was applied to patient planning in a geriatric/special needs clinic. Results Students were more likely to apply questions from disciplines that were preceded by didactic instruction—primary care, pharmacy, nutrition, and dentistry—and less likely to apply questions from nursing and social work. Conclusions Although still in the early stages, the model is viable to guide learning and assess performance to a level of grasping the concept. The exercise is student led. For the practitioner, the learning outcome becomes the performance outcome. Further model development is ongoing with limited models for comparison.

Two critical thinking models—probing questions and conceptualization—adding 4 skillsets to the teacher's armamentarium

“…Social work expertise is called for in providing oral care for an increasingly complex set of patient populations. 8,12 The IPP mindset is essential with social work being an integral part. 8 Deriving probing questions from the social worker's expertise will depend on command of basic concepts in social work.…”

“…8,12 The IPP mindset is essential with social work being an integral part. 8 Deriving probing questions from the social worker's expertise will depend on command of basic concepts in social work. Progression to a skillset applicable to patient care can then follow a path as described previously for caries risk progression.…”

“…Critical thinking skillsets have been developed and reported for treatment planning, literature search, and critique, caries risk assessment, technology decision-making, EBD, geriatric risk assessment, IPP, reflections/situation analysis, behavior management, case presentation. [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9] These peer-reviewed skillsets can aid in showing milestones so far established for explicit learning outcomes in critical thinking and can give insights to extend the boundaries to include conceptualizing the patient interaction. Emulation models in progress will demonstrate critical thinking skillsets deriving probing questions from the expert in social work and ethics.…”

“…The enabling questions are designed to trigger an alert to follow in greater depth with subsequent skillsets previously developed. 8,12 For example, for transportation, the next level of probing would be: For more in depth questioning for autonomy/dependency, mobility, medical decisions, communication barriers, activities of daily living (ADL), or finances:…”

“…While the skillset on Social Work can be used in any discipline or clinic, we have incorporated the skillset into the critical thinking exercises in Geriatrics and IPP. 4,7,8…”