Integration of systematic clinical interprofessional training in a student-faculty collaborative primary care practice

ABSTRACT

The changing healthcare environment and movement toward team-based care are contemporary challenges confronting health professional education. The primary care workforce must be prepared with recent national interprofessional competencies to practice and lead in this changing environment. From 2012 to 2014, the weekly Beth Israel Deaconess Crimson Care Collaborative Student-Faculty Practice collaborated with Northeastern University to develop, implement and evaluate an innovative model that incorporated interprofessional education into primary care practice with the goal of improving student understanding of, and ability to deliver quality, team-based care. In the monthly interprofessional clinic, an educational curriculum empowered students with evidence-based, team-based care principles. Integration of nursing, pharmacy, medicine, and masters of public health students and faculty into direct patient care, provided the opportunity to practice skills. The TeamSTEPPS® Teamwork Attitudes Questionnaire was administered pre- and post-intervention to assess its perceived impact. Seventeen students completed the post-intervention survey. Survey data indicated very positive attitudes towards team-based care at baseline. Significant improvements were reported in attitudes towards situation monitoring, limiting personal conflict, administration support and communication. However, small, but statistically significant declines were seen on one team structure and two communication items. Our program provides further evidence for the use of interprofessional training in primary care.

KEYWORDS:

• Interprofessional education
• work-based learning
• interprofessional practice
• longitudinal study
• validated survey

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank HMS and NU leadership whose support was crucial including Richard Schwartzstein, Terry Fulmer, Shan Mohammed, Susan Roberts, David Zgarrick, Jules Dienstag, Mark Aronson, Russell Phillips, Sara Fazio, David Roberts, Buck Strewler, Irina Todorova and Terese O’Neill Pirozzi. We are especially grateful for the support from Elizabeth Langley and to the Crimson Care Collaborative faculty Kristin Remus, Bradley Crotty, Felipe Molina and Irene Rahman.

Disclosure statement

The authors report no conflicts of interest. The authors alone are responsible for the writing and content of this article.

Funding

This project was funded through the kind support of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, and Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences, all in Boston, MA.

Additional information

Funding

This project was funded through the kind support of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School Center for Primary Care, and Northeastern University Bouvé College of Health Sciences, all in Boston, MA.