Interprofessional Competency Toolkit for Internationally Educated Health Professionals: Evaluation and Pilot Testing.

INTRODUCTION: Internationally Educated Health Professionals (IEHPs) constitute a major health care workforce in Canada. Interprofessional education is particularly important for IEHPs to integrate into the Canadian health care system. We designed an online interprofessional education curriculum for IEHPs. The curriculum is designed to cover the six interprofessional competency domains defined in the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative National Interprofessional Competency Framework. In this article, we are presenting findings from the pilot testing of the curriculum with a cohort of IEHPs and educators. METHODS: We conducted surveys and interviews with IEHPs and educators from four provinces (British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba). We aimed to include seven healthcare professionals: licensed practical nurses, registered nurses, registered psychiatric nurses, pharmacists, physicians, occupational therapists, and physical therapists. We also used a pre- post- self-assessment tool and a set of reflective questions to measure the effectiveness of the curriculum. RESULTS: Thirty IEHPs and five educators reviewed the online curriculum and participated in this evaluation. Postintervention confidence scores for all items under the role clarification and patient-centered care domains increased significantly (P = <0.01) after module completion. The scores also increased for most questions in team functioning, collaborative leadership, and communication domains. The postassessment scores increased for only half of the questions in conflict management domains. Participants agreed with the appropriateness of the content in terms of language, scenarios, and cultural aspects covered in the online curriculum on interprofessional education. DISCUSSION: The content of the curriculum improved IEHPs' understanding of interprofessional collaboration in Canada. The interprofessional curriculum is a creative and useful resource to improve collaborative practice among internationally educated health professionals in Canada.

Interprofessional education for internationally educated health professionals: an environmental scan.

OBJECTIVE: The objective of this environmental scan was to identify Western Canadian interprofessional education (IPE) resources that currently exist for internationally educated health professionals (IEHPs). METHODOLOGY: A web-based search was conducted to identify learning resources meeting defined inclusion criteria with a particular focus on the resources available in the Western Canadian provinces. Information was extracted using a standardized template, and we contacted IEHP programs for additional information if necessary. Members of the research team reviewed preliminary findings, identified missing information from their respective provinces, and contacted organizations to fill in any gaps. RESULTS: The scan identified 26 learning resources for IEHPs in Western Canadian provinces and 15 in other provinces focused on support for IEHPs to meet their profession-specific licensing requirements and to acquire knowledge and competencies relevant to working in the Canadian health care system. Most learning resources, such as those found in bridging programs for IEHPs, included an orientation to the Canadian health care system, components of cultural competence, and at least one aspect of interprofessional competence (eg, communication skills). None of the 41 learning resources provided comprehensive training for IEHPs to cover the six interprofessional competency domains defined in the Canadian Interprofessional Health Collaborative (CIHC) National Interprofessional Competency Framework. CONCLUSION: The IEHPs learning resources in Western Canada do not cover all of the interprofessional competencies. This review points to the value of developing a comprehensive IPE curriculum, based on the six domains identified in the CIHC National Interprofessional Competency Framework.

Vision-related quality of life among elders with cataract in Sri Lanka: findings from a study in Gampaha District.

The objective of this study was to establish the prevalence of cataract and measure vision related quality of life among elders in Sri Lanka. The 4-part study consisted of a survey to establish cataract prevalence, a case control study of risk factors, an assessment of the National Eye Institute Visual Functional Questionnaire (NEI-VFQ), and a comparison of quality of life among elders with and without cataract. Cataract prevalence was 56%. Significant risk factors were age, being female, occupational exposure, lower social class, presence of chronic illnesses, and smoking. The NEI-VFQ was validated for use in Sri Lanka and quality of life of elders with cataract was significantly lower on the NEI-VFQ and 2 other standard measures. The findings inform the development of public health strategies for treatment and prevention of cataract in Sri Lanka where the impact of cataract is increasingly being felt with rapid population aging and are applicable to other developing countries.

Resource allocation in public hospitals: is it effective?

The allocative inefficiency is a fundamental flaw in the public hospitals of the developing countries. The inefficiencies drain the limited public resources allotted for healthcare. Sri Lanka's public health system faces worsening budget constraints. The resource allocation practices of the Ministry of Health focus on increasing the cadre of hospital staff, consequently crowding out the investments on facility development. The purpose of the study is to assess the impact of resource allocation in the tertiary-care public hospitals that are under the central Ministry of Health. The model is based on the assumption that the hospital managers and other agents of a public hospital pursue the objective of quality maximization (in the absence of a profit motive). The inpatient mortality rate is selected as the indicator of quality. With the use of panel data fixed-effects, and first-differencing estimation methods, we study the impact of the resource allocation on the hospital mortality rates. The selected models are statistically significant at 0.1% level. The elasticity effect of the capital is considerably larger than the effects of the human resources, in servicing the patients. The results suggest that the human resource utilization is suboptimal, due to the inadequacy of the capital (i.e. medical equipment, etc.). The reorientation of the resource allocation towards the capital investments may save more lives.