Design and Evaluation of a Prelicensure Interprofessional Course on Improving Care Transitions

Abstract

Effective management of care transitions for older adults require the coordinated expertise of an interprofessional team. Unfortunately, different health care professions are rarely educated together or trained in teamwork skills. To address this issue, a team of professionally diverse faculty from the Duke University Geriatric Education Center designed an interprofessional course focused on improving transitions of care for older adults. This innovative prelicensure course provided interactive teaching sessions designed to promote critical thinking and foster effective communication among health care professionals, caregivers, and patients. Students were assessed by in-class and online participation, performance on individual assignments, and team-based proposals to improve care transitions for older patients with congestive heart failure. Twenty students representing six professions completed the course; 18 completed all self-efficacy and course evaluation surveys. Students rated their self-efficacy in several domains before and after the course and reported gains in teamwork skills (p < .001), transitions of care (p < .001), quality improvement (p < .001) and cultural competence (p < .001). Learner feedback emphasized the importance of enthusiastic and well-prepared faculty, interactive learning experiences, and engagement in relevant work. This course offers a promising approach to shifting the paradigm of health professions education to empower graduates to promote quality improvement through team-based care.

Keywords:

• interprofessional education
• quality improvement
• transitions of care

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by a Health Resources and Services Administration Geriatric Education Center grant (D31HP08812). The authors wish to acknowledge the invaluable support of Emily Herbert and Michelle Mitchell, program coordinators, and other course faculty including Christy Knight, MSW, Sara Tepfer, MSW, Jennifer Schuh, PharmD, Katja Elbert-Avila, MD, Gwendolen Buhr, MD, Kathy Shipp, DPT, Donald Bailey, PhD, RN, Jason Moss, PharmD, Julie Pruitt, RD, Connie Bales, PhD, and all the GEC students, community partners, patients, and caregivers. Portions of this work were presented at the 2009 Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America in Atlanta, GA.