Enhancing primary care and preventive services through Interprofessional practice and education

Abstract

Interprofessional (IP) practice and education are important when seeking to respond to the growing demand for primary and preventive care services. Multiple professions with synergistic expertise are needed to effectively provide health promotion, disease prevention, and patient education and to help patients with multiple comorbidities, chronic health conditions, and care coordination. A recent study by Schor et al. titled, "Multidisciplinary work promotes preventive medicine and health education in primary care: a cross-sectional survey," compares the implementation of preventive services in three primary care models. Higher rates of health services, patient education, and health outcomes were documented in two different models of care involving persons in multiple professions when compared with independent solo physicians' practices. In this commentary, we focus on the value of IP team-based care, continuing professional development, and the impact of the team on practice performance and health outcomes. Key components of effective IP teams include using consistent terminology to describe the team composition and function, team structures with purposeful selection of professions to address gaps in care, leadership support, and IP continuing professional development and education.

Interprofissionalidade na atenção primária: intencionalidades das equipes versus realidade do processo de trabalho

“…Considerando que parcela importante dos profissionais da APS possui tempo de formação e tempo de atuação no SUS superior a uma década [23][24] , inclusive os participantes deste estudo, é imprescindível reforçar a educação interprofissional.…”

“…Esse tipo de educação permanente favorece o alinhamento do trabalho em saúde ao cuidado integral, para uma visão além das formações acadêmicas básicas, pautadas por um modelo de saúde assistencialista e fragmentado 23 . Modelo que não comporta as mudanças necessárias para a prestação integral de cuidados, prática interprofissional e trabalho colaborativo, aspectos ansiados na atenção primária 24 .…”

Barriers and facilitators affecting presentation in women with early versus advanced stage cervical cancer

“…One woman commented, “I’m telling the doctors, I never knew how important it was to get a Pap smear. That’s something that I never learned.” It should also be emphasized that nursing staff should feel empowered to have these discussions with patients to educate or reinforce the message and mitigate barriers ( Fowler et al, 2020 ). Furthermore, Medicaid expansion has been shown to increase cervical cancer screening in low-income women ( Sabik et al, 2018 ).…”

Pharmacist-Physician Interprofessional Collaboration to Promote Early Detection of Cognitive Impairment: Increasing Diagnosis Rate

“…In order to mitigate the economic barriers to obtaining preventive services, there is a growing interest in taking advantage of interprofessional teams that are positioned to address practices related to prevention, population health management, care coordination, and access to medical care ( Fowler 2020 ).…”