Improved Self-Assessed Collaboration Through Interprofessional Education: Midwifery Students and Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents Learning Together.

INTRODUCTION: Research suggests that interprofessional education, bringing learners together to learn about, with, and from each other, improves health professions education and can improve health outcomes. Little research has measured outcomes of interprofessional education between midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents. The purpose of this study was to examine self-assessed interprofessional and collaborative competencies among midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents. METHODS: Baseline self-assessed interprofessional and collaborative competencies were compared with follow-up measurements to evaluate learners' experiences over an 11-month study period. Participants were midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents who experienced interprofessional learning activities. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative Competency Self-Assessment Survey (IPEC Survey) and Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) were used. RESULTS: Of 256 learners at 4 demonstration sites, 223 (87%) completed the baseline, and 121 of 237 eligible learners (51%) completed the follow-up surveys. The IPEC Survey total score (t = 2.31, P = .02) and interaction subscale (t = 2.85, P = .005) and ICCAS score (t = 4.04, P = .001) increased for midwifery students but not obstetrics and gynecology residents on the IPEC Survey (t = 0.32, P = .75) and ICCAS (t = -0.05, P = .96) measures. Midwifery students (87%) and residents (57%) reported improved overall ability to collaborate. Learners responding to 3 open-ended questions valued team-based experiences, including learning how to communicate with each other; appreciated learning each other's education and scope of practice; and recommended skills development including uncommon clinical events, case discussions, and direct clinical care. DISCUSSION: This study advanced knowledge about interprofessional education between midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents. Midwifery students improved in self-assessed interprofessional and collaborative competencies. Most learners reported better interprofessional collaboration skills and were positive about future interprofessional learning. This evaluation approach is available for other programs implementing or extending interprofessional education.

Interprofessional Education Between Midwifery Students and Obstetrics and Gynecology Residents: An American College of Nurse-Midwives and American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists Collaboration.

Despite areas of excellence, US perinatal care outcomes lag behind most developed countries. In addition, a shortage and maldistribution of health care providers exists. The American College of Nurse-Midwives and the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists (ACOG) partnered to obtain funding to develop interprofessional education modules and other learning activities for midwifery students and obstetrics and gynecology residents in 4 demonstration sites. The multidisciplinary 2016 ACOG document Collaboration in Practice: Implementing Team-Based Care was adopted as a framework. Core competencies of values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork developed by the Interprofessional Education Collaborative were used to guide the work. Seven modules have been developed including guiding principles, patient-centered care, role clarification, collaborative practice, history and culture, care transition, and difficult conversations. Learners participate in laboratory and simulation activities and work together in clinical care settings. Stakeholder experiences as well as barriers to implementation are discussed. Learning materials and activity descriptions are open resourced and shared on a project website for use by programs interested in implementing an interprofessional curriculum. Ongoing formal evaluation including pilot testing of a program evaluation method is described.

Blueprint for Advancing High-Value Maternity Care Through Physiologic Childbearing.

The Blueprint for Advancing High-Value Maternity Care Through Physiologic Childbearing charts an efficient pathway to a maternity care system that reliably enables all women and newborns to experience healthy physiologic processes around the time of birth, to the extent possible given their health needs and informed preferences. The authors are members of a multistakeholder, multidisciplinary National Advisory Council that collaborated to develop this document. This approach preventively addresses troubling trends in maternal and newborn outcomes and persistent racial and other disparities by mobilizing innate capacities for healthy childbearing processes and limiting use of consequential interventions. It provides more appropriate care to healthier, lower-risk women and newborns who often receive more specialized care, though such care may not be needed and may cause unintended harm. It also offers opportunities to improve the care, experience and outcomes of women with health challenges by fostering healthy perinatal physiologic processes whenever safely possible.

Women's Health Care Teams and the Future of Obstetrics and Gynecology.

Health care delivery is in a stage of transformation and a meaningful change in provision of care must also be accompanied by changes in the educational process of health care professionals. This article lays out a roadmap to better prepare obstetrician-gynecologists (ob-gyns) to succeed in interdisciplinary women's health care teams. Just as our current educational programs emphasize the development of competent surgical skills, our future programs must encourage and support the development of communication, teamwork, and leadership skills for ob-gyns. Formal integration of these fundamentals at all levels of the health care training continuum will create an educational system designed to equip all practitioners with a basic level of knowledge and provide opportunities to acquire additional knowledge and skills as needs and interest dictate. Integral to the implementation will be the evaluation of the effects of the contributions of interprofessional education on patient, practice, and health system outcomes. Successful demonstration of value will lead to the sustainability of the educational programs through recognition by physicians, health care teams, academia, health care systems, and payers.

Women's healthcare: initiatives and challenges.

John C Jennings is 2014-2015 President of the American College and Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists. He is currently Professor of Obstetrics and Gynecology at Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center and has previously served as Regional Dean of the School of Medicine at TTUHSC Permian Basin. He is a passionate medical educator and during his academic career he has served as division chief, residency program director and department chair. He has authored numerous peer-reviewed and other publications and has been the recipient of multiple teaching awards. Prior to entering academic medicine, he was a busy practicing obstetrician/gynecologist in San Angelo, TX, USA.