The Interdisciplinary Curriculum for Oncology Palliative Care Education (iCOPE): Meeting the Challenge of Interprofessional Education

Abstract

Interdisciplinary palliative education can be successful if faculty teams are willing to confront challenges, accept feedback on multiple levels, and compromise while maintaining focus on desired learner outcomes.

Interdisciplinary palliative care teams : insights and experiences of chaplain interns and social work interns.

“…These efforts are to develop knowledge, skills, and attitudes which result in interprofessional team behaviors and competence. The goal of interprofessional education is for students to learn how to work on an interprofessional team and take the knowledge, skill, and value into their future practice, ultimately offering interprofessional patient care as part of a collaborative team and focused on patient outcomes (Buring et al, 2009;Head et al, 2014).…”

“…This expanded project included three schools within the University of Louisville: School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and Kent School of Social Work (Head et al, 2014).…”

“…No counselors were included in the iCOPE study. Once the interdisciplinary educational modules were complete, all interns were expected to demonstrate mastery in palliative care, with communication and teamwork as themes, which supported their learning experiences (Head et al, 2014).…”

“…Phase II of the iCOPE study included a written reflective assignment from the students after they completed their interdisciplinary palliative care team clinical rotation at a local inpatient hospital unit (Head et al, 2014;Pfeifer et al, 2012). The interns were required to respond in writing to 10 questions (see Appendix A) regarding their experiences during their clinical rotation.…”

“…Highly functioning and well-communicating interdisciplinary palliative care teams are not easy to create. The interns in the current study were exposed to effective interdisciplinary teams and gained interprofessional education, which is crucial for students who are preparing to work in today's healthcare settings (Head et al, 2014).…”