Development of the assessment for collaborative environments (ACE-15): A tool to measure perceptions of interprofessional “teamness”

ABSTRACT

As interprofessional education moves from classroom to clinical settings, assessing clinical training sites for a high level of “teamness” to ensure optimal learning environments is critical but often problematic ahead of student placement. We developed a tool (Assessment for Collaborative Environments, or ACE), suitable for a range of clinical settings and health professionals, that allows rapid assessment of a clinical practice’s teamwork qualities. We collected evidence of tool validity including content, response process, internal structure, and convergent validity. Expert review and cognitive interviews allowed reduction of the initial 30-item tool to 15 items (the ACE-15). Data from 192 respondents from 17 clinical professions and varied clinical settings (inpatient, ambulatory, urban, and rural) were used for factor analysis, which resulted in a single factor solution. Internal consistency reliability Cronbach’s alpha was high at 0.91. Subgroup analysis of 121 respondents grouped by their clinical teams (n = 16 teams) showed a wide range of intra-team agreement. Data from a subsequent sample of 54 clinicians who completed the ACE-15 and a measure of team cohesion indicated convergent validity, with a correlation of the tools at r = 0.81. We conclude that the ACE-15 has acceptable psychometric properties and promising utility for assessing interprofessional teamness in clinical training sites that are settings for learners, and, in addition may be useful for team development.

KEY WORDS:

• Clinical practice sites
• interprofessional collaboration
• interprofessional education
• psychometric tool development
• teamness

Acknowledgments

We thank the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Executive Vice President & Provost, Jeanette Mladenovic, MD, MBA, MACP for support for this project. We also thank OHSU Research Associate Elaine Waller for technical survey support and Judith Baggs, PhD, RN for editorial advice. For biostatistics consultation, we thank the Biostatistics & Design Program of the Oregon Clinical & Translational Research Institute.

Declaration of interest

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

Funding

Financial support for this project was provided by the OHSU Office of Academic Affairs and the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.

Additional information

Funding

Financial support for this project was provided by the OHSU Office of Academic Affairs and the National Center for Interprofessional Practice and Education.