The VOTIS, part 1: development and pilot trial of a tool to assess students’ interprofessional skill development using video-reflexive ethnography

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the development and evaluation of the video Observation Tool for Interprofessional Skills (VOTIS). We describe the development of an authentic interprofessional assessment tool that incorporates video reflection and allows formative and summative assessment of individual learners’ interprofessional skills within an authentic interprofessional context. We then investigate its validity and reliability. The VOTIS was developed using a modified Delphi technique. The tool was piloted with 61 students and 11 clinical educators who completed the VOTIS following team meetings where students interacted about their interprofessional clinical work. The following were calculated: internal consistency; students’ proficiency levels; inter-rater reliability between students and clinical educators; and inter-rater reliability between clinical educators and an independent rater. Results indicate that the VOTIS has acceptable internal consistency and moderate reliability and has value in evaluating students’ interprofessional skills. Study outcomes highlight the need for more explicit wording of tool content and instructions and further clinical educator training to increase the utility and reliability of the VOTIS as a learning and assessment tool.

KEYWORDS:

• Allied health
• interprofessional assessment
• interprofessional education
• video-reflexive ethnography

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge and thank the students and clinical educators who participated in this study.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary material

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed on the publisher’s website

Notes

1. Practical consideration of paper length and reader burden has led to evaluation of the VOTIS being reported in two papers, the current paper related to its reliability and validity and a second paper exploring students’ and clinical educators’ experiences and perceptions. Both elements of the VOTIS’s development and evaluation are important. Validation and evaluation are multidimensional processes that should ideally draw on multiple methods and paradigms (Cook et al., 2015; Mertens, 2010; Varpio et al., 2021).

Additional information

Funding

This research was funded through a Teaching Innovation Grant from the University of Queensland;University of Queensland Early Career Researcher Grant;

Notes on contributors

Anne E. Hill

Anne Hill is an Associate Professor in Speech Pathology in the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at The University of Queensland. Anne is a speech pathologist with extensive clinical experience in a range of contexts. She is an active researcher in teaching and learning practices associated with students in the health sciences and has a keen interest in the areas of interprofessional education, simulation pedagogy, and students’ development of cultural responsiveness through their clinical practice.

Emma Bartle

Emma Bartle is an Honorary Senior Lecturer within the School of Dentistry, University Queensland. Winner of the Universitas 21 Health Sciences Group Teaching Excellence Award, and author or co-author of numerous journal articles, book chapters and conference papers, Emma has extensive expertise in clinical teaching and learning. She has a particular interest in mentorship, clinical supervision and interprofessional education.

Jodie A. Copley

Jodie Copley is an occupational therapist, clinical educator and academic who led the development of allied health interprofessional university clinics at The University of Queensland 25 years ago. She has a track record of clinical education research and teaching initiatives, and remains committed to interprofessional education and collaborative practice. Jodie is a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy and a Fellow of the Occupational Therapy Australia Research Academy.

Rebecca Olson

Rebecca E. Olson is Associate Professor in Sociology, University of Queensland. Funded by competitive national grants, her research intersects the sociologies of health and emotion. As a leading innovative qualitative researcher, Olson employs video-based, participatory, reflexive, post-qualitative and post-paradigmatic approaches to inform translational inquiry in healthcare and healthcare education settings. Her recent books include Towards a Sociology of Cancer Caregiving: Time to Feel (Routledge, 2015) and Emotions in Late Modernity (Routledge, 2019, co-edited with Patulny, Bellocchi, Khorana, McKenzie and Peterie).

Ruth Dunwoodie

Ruth Dunwoodie is a physiotherapist, clinical education liaison manager and acting chair of the clinical education committee within the School of Health and Rehabilitation Sciences at the University of Queensland. For more than 15 years, she has contributed to clinical education scholarship on topics ranging from telesupervision to private practice clinical placements, using a range of methodologies.

Tessa Barnett

Tessa Barnett is a speech pathologist and clinical educator with a history of developing interprofessional clinical placements for undergraduate students at the University of Queensland. Her own research studies promoted the importance of interprofessional collaboration for effective early literacy interventions. She continues to work as a research officer within interprofessional collaboration projects in both health and education services.

Alice Zuber

Alice Zuber is a clinical occupational therapist and clinical educator with a history of providing research assistance and research project management for allied health teaching and learning projects at the University of Queensland. She has a special interest in teaching clinical reasoning within occupational therapy.