Updates in Gerontology and Geriatrics Interprofessional Education and Team Training

This issue of Gerontology and Geriatrics Education provides us with new evidence about the value of interprofessional education and team training in ensuring optimal delivery of the complex care often needed by older adults and others with multiple health conditions. Importantly, it also presents several provocative gerontology team training curricular approaches that prepare an array of professionals to work effectively on teams. The subject of interdisciplinary teams is more relevant than ever, with the increased recognition of the impact of social determinants of health on health outcomes and the policy emphasis on value-based care for the whole person. Tackling the complex social needs of patients and families requires collaboration with others outside of the traditional healthcare sector, such as the staff of social service and public health agencies and community-based organizations (NASEM, 2016). Thus, it is critical to extend modalities of team training to gerontologists and others beyond the clinical geriatrics professions while continuing to build the evidence for the importance of team care within clinical care settings.

Of the ten articles included in this issue, four present interdisciplinary curriculum models for gerontology education and six provide evaluation of clinical team training programs for particular settings or types of care (e.g., palliative care). The article by Howe and colleagues presents a comprehensive evaluation of the Veteran Administration’s Rural Interdisciplinary Team Training program. The evaluation included a post-program satisfaction survey, a pre-post geriatrics knowledge change assessment, a longitudinal evaluation of team development skills and an evaluation of the quality of the content of action plans developed during the program. Lally and colleagues used a needs assessment to tailor the curriculum to group needs and provided content on geriatric principles and palliative care for staff working within an accountable care organization. Palliative care was also the subject matter for the training program using communication simulation presented by Gellis and colleagues. In this study, the curriculum was anchored in the Interprofessional Education Collaborative(IPEC®) competency-based framework. Interprofessional practice competencies were used as a student evaluation method in the Wen and colleagues article, which also used a team simulation exercise to teach students about the complex care needs of older adults. Taylor and colleagues taught health science students about falls prevention using content and tools from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Stopping Elderly Accidents, Deaths & Injuries (STEADI) initiative. Morano and Damiani utilized an Italian continuing education curriculum, the Health Services Planning and Management Program, that includes health care administration and management staff in the training. The authors note that by involving all types of professionals associated with the development, delivery, evaluation, and fiscal responsibility of health care delivery, the students are given the opportunity to learn together.

The four articles in this issue that explore interprofessional team curricula in gerontology education are extremely interesting and important contributions to the field. The first article by Waters, Hyner and Ferraro takes a very unique approach using the concept of language precision to bring the subject matter of biology of aging to non-biologists. Through a series of well-crafted learning experiences over three courses, students are provided tools to boost their cross-disciplinary vocabulary and increase their confidence to become productive members of future multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary teams. The article by Leedahla and colleagues presents a model curriculum that engages students with older adults to assist them in improving skills with technological devices. The intergenerational experience increases student skills in communication and problem solving and the older adults that participate increase their confidence with technology and social connections. The article by Finlay and colleagues turns our attention to the little studied topic of identifying effective strategies to prepare students to work effectively in interdisciplinary research settings. Students acquired new methodological skills, gained exposure to diverse disciplines, built interdisciplinary understanding, and cultivated professional development. This article also provides an excellent background section on interprofessional health care teams and team training. The fourth article outlines the process used by a gerontology program interdisciplinary faculty to infuse the relatively new AGHE gerontology competencies into a well-established curriculum. Step by step, Dassel, Eaton and Felsted take us through the process of mapping the AGHE competencies onto the program’s curriculum, culminating in new course development and course revisions. This article provides a very useful model for curriculum assessment and competency mapping for curricular revisions using the AGHE gerontology education competencies.

I’m sure you can tell that I have great enthusiasm for all of the articles in this new issue. The topic is more critical than ever, and the articles provide so much important information: models, tools and ways of thinking to increase interprofessional teaching and learning in the classroom, in the community and in the clinical setting. Several common themes run throughout the articles – the importance of communication in team training; the critical aspect of including experiential and action-oriented learning experiences; the significance of bringing gerontologists into the team and preparing them to be effective; and the use of a competency-based approach to curriculum development. A final theme, so important for moving us forward, is to not only use the evidence-base for interprofessional work with older adults, but to contribute to the evidence through rigorous evaluation and a comprehensive description of the work – as these authors have done. Please enjoy this wonderful compilation of articles that I’m sure will enrich your own work.