INTERPROFESSIONAL TEACHING GRAND ROUNDS: IMPLEMENTATION FOR EARLY LEARNING OF TEAM COLLABORATION

Background: The 2003 IOM report "Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality" reflected 5 core competencies including: "All health professionals…deliver patient-centered care as members of an InterProfessional (IPE)... [ view full abstract ]

Background:
The 2003 IOM report "Health Professions Education: A Bridge to Quality" reflected 5 core competencies including: "All health professionals…deliver patient-centered care as members of an InterProfessional (IPE) team, …” (1,2) This paper describes an inaugural IPE event at one University, initiated by an occupational therapist which involved 120 learners from 10 health disciplines in an InterProfessional Teaching Grand Rounds.

Educational Philosophy or theory:
R. Keith Sawyer’s style of experiential learning: Sawyer is a leading expert on creativity, collaboration, and learning. The classroom is a learning laboratory where active engagement builds student confidence, competence, and the ability to collaborate.
Pedagogy / educational approach(es) used:
My approach, reflective of Sawyers educational theory is reflected in Figure 1. High levels of engagement both with the material and learners from other disciplines were used as a motivational tool.
Evaluation:
The process evaluation revealed high levels of support among faculty for the concepts of InterProfessional education coupled with a resistance to change of long-standing curricular structure. We therefore relied on engaging students outside scheduled time in the evening. Formative evaluation from the 120 student pilot, informed changes to subsequent events involving 280 students in 24 groups. Results show high learner engagement and significant changes in ranking of perceptions of roles of other health professionals.
Application to Education and /or practice:
Occupational Therapy Education is often taught in silos when learners move into systems reliant on teamwork. IPE enables early learning of collaboration with learners in other health disciplines to promote optimal patient centered care.