Interprofessional education in leadership and advocacy

Dear Sir

Healthcare providers are well positioned to advocate on behalf of their patients and provide leadership for improved healthcare delivery. The American Medical Association (2001) states that physicians must “Advocate for the social, economic, educational, and political changes that ameliorate suffering and contribute to human well-being.” Other medical professional societies have echoed that sentiment. However, traditional professional training does not adequately address these skills. The Leadership Education Advocacy Development Scholarship (LEADS) program at the University of Colorado School of Medicine was developed to cultivate the skills and motivation necessary for health care providers to become leaders and health advocates.

The elective consisted of a combination of didactic and experiential learning activities designed to provide a framework for reforming the US health care system and practical advocacy skills. The topics covered included: Introduction to the US Health Care System, The Politics of Health Care Reform, Influencing Legislative Policy, Writing a Fact Sheet, Community Organizing, Coalition Building, Working with the Media, Writing for Effect, and Comparative Health Care Systems. Local content experts (state legislator, community organizers, head of a state-wide health care coalition, journalist, expert in comparative health systems, policy writer) taught several sessions. Participants viewed and discussed the PBS Frontline (2008) Documentary “Sick Around the World,”; wrote fact sheets and opinion editorials; and practiced media interviews. Discussions focused on group participation to address the interprofessional nature of our cohort.

Our inaugural interprofessional cohort consisted of 16 graduate level trainees in physical therapy, speech therapy, nursing, epidemiology, social work, and clinical psychology along with residents in Internal Medicine and Pediatrics. Participants increased their self-confidence in ability to advocate in clinical settings, work with community organizations, influence public policy (p = 0.0002), write an opinion editorial (p < 0.0001), give a TV/radio interview (p = 0.0002), influence legislation (p = 0.0074), and be a community leader (p = 0.0036). Participant attitudes regarding the importance of provider participation in the health care reform process and the importance of interprofessional collaboration improved.

We learned several lessons from this experience. First, bringing together clinicians from different professions requires early dialogue dedicated to personal introductions and a description of the scope of practice, training process and path to licensure for each profession. In addition, recruitment of additional faculty from other professions would have enhanced learning. Challenges include monitoring long-term outcomes in terms of advocacy activity and interprofessional collaboration.

Rita S. Lee, Jeremy Long, Shale Wong, Steven Federico, Catherine Battaglia, Kathy I. Kennedy, Mark Earnest, University of Colorado School of Medicine, Aurora, CO 80045, USA. E-mail: [email protected]