Interprofessional Education for Students’ in Primary Care Placements: Widening Opportunities for Accessible Interprofessional Learning

Abstract

Ensuring that health care professional students' are provided with accessible interprofessional learning within the practice placement setting can be challenging. This paper describes an interprofessional activity which enables students to experience interprofessional learning and working within the primary care setting and to consider the impact of effective teamwork on patient safety.Improving collaboration between primary care professional groups and improving patient safety are all part of the Scottish Government's recent national action plan to improve quality in primary health care settings. 1,2 This will undoubtedly impact on health and social care students approaching the end of their programmes of training and entering into the workforce. Preparing students for future collaborative practice and for providing quality care is the main goal of interprofessional learning (IPL). 3 It is possible to consider how the primary care setting can provide students with accessible IPL opportunities to reinforce the impact of collaboration on patient safety. This paper describes an IPL activity piloted with nursing and medical students in primary care placements. Students were provided with scheduled time together during their placements to explore the roles and responsibilities of the multidisciplinary team in meeting the health and social care needs of a patient.The Fife Interprofessional Clinical Skills Model for Education was established in 2009, as a collaborative initiative between the University of St. Andrews and University of Dundee. A pilot of interprofessional workshops in primary and secondary care settings helped to establish a programme of interprofessional workshops which currently run within students' practice placements. 4 Ensuring accessibility to all students spread across such a wide rural and urban geographical area has been a challenge. Workshops are currently run in areas where there are more likely to be larger clusters of students from different professional groups, to ensure an adequate interprofessional mix. Students within primary care usually attend the workshops if the practice is in close proximity to the workshop venue. However, it can be difficult for students located in more rural placements to attend these scheduled workshops, due to travel and time constraints. This has led to exploring how the programme could be widened to ensure students in primary care are offered the same IPL opportunities.The Leicester Model of Interprofessional Education was identified as an appropriate and relevant model to adapt and pilot. 5

Health and social care professionals’ attitudes to interprofessional working and interprofessional education: A literature review

“…The healthcare setting can be an invaluable opportunity to learn with students from other professions and to gain first-hand experience of how health and social care teams work (O'Carroll, Braid, Ker, & Jackson 2012;O'Carroll, Smith, Collinson, Jackson, & Ker, 2013). However, opportunities for IPE and students' experiences of IPW within the healthcare setting can be varied and limited (Pollard, Miers, & Rickaby, 2012;Stew, 2005).…”

Exploring experiential learning within interprofessional practice education initiatives for pre-licensure healthcare students: a scoping review

“… Describing and/or evaluating the overall IPP initiative. Fourty-four articles provided a description of planning, implementation and/or evaluation of elements of an IPP program [ 48 – 50 , 57 , 59 , 60 , 62 , 65 , 67 , 69 , 71 , 72 , 75 , 78 , 81 , 87 – 91 , 93 , 96 , 100 – 121 ], while the intent of one article was to describe the importance of IPP in relation to service delivery, care and meeting the needs of a population [ 122 ]. Program evaluation of the overall implementation or outcomes of an IPP initiative, such as curriculum design, was identified as a primary purpose in 13 articles [ 56 , 59 , 75 , 95 , 98 , 114 , 117 , 123 – 128 ] and evaluation of impact of the IPP initiative on stakeholders (i.e., clients, health agency placements, etc.)…”

“… Evaluation of placements and experience on student outcomes . Evaluation of the impact of clinical placements on students’ attitudes and/or perspectives towards IPE, IPC, IPL, IPP, and/or their placement experience was a purpose in 30 articles [ 49 – 52 , 63 , 65 , 68 , 72 , 73 , 76 – 78 , 82 , 83 , 85 , 98 , 117 , 118 , 121 , 122 , 130 , 135 – 143 ]. In 28 articles a purpose was to describe some specific aspect of the students’ perceptions on their experience, learning, or success from the IPP education initiative, such as competency development, cultural beliefs, interprofessional socialization, understanding of complex health issues, or other aspect of professional development [ 49 – 51 , 54 , 55 , 58 , 60 , 66 , 72 , 74 , 75 , 79 , 80 , 97 – 99 , 116 , 118 , 122 , 123 , 127 , 130 , 133 , 142 , 144 – 147 ].…”

“…Related to this, 20 of the initiatives were designed to build on IPE, IPL, and/or IPC theory or experiences through the initiative [ 48 , 59 , 70 , 80 , 87 , 92 , 106 , 109 , 111 , 112 , 114 , 128 , 131 , 133 , 135 , 137 , 138 , 140 , 141 , 144 ]. Gaining familiarity with other disciplines and professions and learning from each other was cited as an intention in 16 of the IPP education initiatives [ 55 , 56 , 64 , 65 , 73 , 74 , 82 , 88 , 91 , 98 , 115 , 121 , 130 , 134 , 135 , 141 ]. For 10 of the articles an intent was to provide IPP EL to pairings of specific student disciplines, such as: medicine and pharmacy [ 68 , 121 ]; medicine and physician assistants [ 96 ]; medicine and psychology [ 90 ]; nursing and medicine [ 133 ]; nurse practitioner and dentistry [ 113 ]; nurse practitioner and medicine [ 146 ]; physical therapy and occupational therapy [ 75 , 111 ]; and psychology interns and primary care physicians [ 89 ].…”

“…Services were provided to patients with specific conditions or disease processes that included chronic disease (e.g., COPD, diabetes, hypertension, HIV, etc.) [ 51 , 53 , 57 , 59 , 62 , 65 , 78 , 80 , 81 , 92 , 95 , 111 , 118 , 121 , 132 , 141 , 148 ], childhood obesity [ 73 ], dementia or cognitive decline [ 84 ], disabilities [ 49 , 61 , 83 , 114 ], orthopedics [ 63 , 137 ], and prenatal care [ 58 ]. Services were also provided to a mix of age and/or medical conditions, such as: complex and multiple health needs [ 50 , 134 ]; primary school students and patients with dementia [ 135 ]; and varied patient groups or sites associated with an IPP initiative (e.g., diabetes, frail elderly, maternity, nursing homes, palliative care, etc.)…”