Development and evaluation of a regional, large-scale interprofessional collaborative care summit.

The Northeastern/Central Pennsylvania Interprofessional Education Coalition (NECPA IPEC) is a coalition of faculty from multiple smaller academic institutions with a mission to promote interprofessional education. An interprofessional learning program was organized, which involved 676 learners from 10 different institutions representing 16 unique professions, and took place at seven different institutions simultaneously. The program was a 3-hour long summit which focused on the management of a patient with ischemic stroke. A questionnaire consisting of the Interprofessional Education Perception Scale (IEPS) questionnaire (pre-post summit), Likert-type questions, and open comment questions explored the learners' perceptions of the session and their attitudes toward interprofessional learning. Responses were analyzed using descriptive statistics and statistical tests for difference and qualitative thematic coding. The attitude of learners toward interprofessional education (as measured by the IEPS) was quite high even prior to the summit, so there were no significant changes after the summit. However, a high percentage of learners and facilitators agreed that the summit met its objective and was effective. In addition, the thematic analysis of the open-ended questions confirmed that students learned from the experience with a sense of the core competencies of interprofessional education and practice. A collaborative approach to delivering interprofessional learning is time and work intensive but beneficial to learners.

Challenges to validation of a complex nonsterile medical device tray.

Validation by steam sterilization of reusable medical devices requires careful attention to many parameters that directly influence whether or not complete sterilization occurs. Complex implant/instrument tray systems have a variety of configurations and components. Geobacillus stearothermophilus biological indicators (BIs) are used in overkill cycles to to simulate worst case conditions and are intended to provide substantial sterilization assurance. Survival of G. stearothermophilus spores was linked to steam access and size of load in the chamber. By a small and reproducible margin, it was determined that placement of the trays in a rigid container into minimally loaded chambers were more difficult to completely sterilize than maximally loaded chambers.