Alignment of an interprofessional student learning experience with a hospital quality improvement initiative.

Assessment of interprofessional education (IPE) frequently focuses on students' learning outcomes including changes in knowledge, skills, and/or attitudes. While a foundational education in the values and information of their chosen profession is critical, interprofessional learning follows a continuum from formal education to practice. The continuum increases in significance and complexity as learning becomes more relationship based and dependent upon the ability to navigate complex interactions with patients, families, communities, co-workers, and others. Integrating IPE into collaborative practice is critical to enhancing students' experiential learning, developing teamwork competencies, and understanding the complexity of teams. This article describes a project that linked students with a hospital-based quality-improvement effort to focus on the acquisition and practice of teamwork skills and to determine the impact of teamwork on patient and quality outcome measures. A hospital unit was identified with an opportunity for improvement related to quality care, patient satisfaction, employee engagement, and team behaviours. One hundred and thirty-seven students from six health profession colleges at the Medical University of South Carolina underwent TeamSTEPPS® training and demonstrated proficiency of their teamwork-rating skills with the TeamSTEPPS® Team Performance Observation Tool (T-TPO). Students observed real-time team behaviours of unit staff before and after staff attended formal TeamSTEPPS® training. The students collected a total of 778 observations using the T-TPO. Teamwork performance on the unit improved significantly across all T-TPO domains (team structure, communication, leadership, situation monitoring, and mutual support). Significant improvement in each domain continued post-intervention and at 15-month follow-up, improvement remained significant compared to baseline. Student engagement in TeamSTEPPS® training and demonstration of their reliability as teamwork-observers was a valuable learning experience and also yielded an opportunity to gather unique, and otherwise difficult to attain, data from a hospital unit for use by quality managers and administrators.

Caregivers Are Heroes: An Innovative Educational Strategy Designed to Promote Compassion/Caring in Health Professional Students.

BACKGROUND: Compassionate care is recognized as an intrinsic element of patient-centered care. Although the evidence seems to indicate that compassionate care can be developed in health professions students, few methodologies reported have been interprofessional in nature. This paper describes Caregivers Are Heroes, an interprofessional educational strategy designed to imbue compassion/caring. METHODS: The sample population consisted of 51 caregivers and 170 students enrolled in three graduate programs during the 2014 summer semester. Students conducted caregiver interviews (CGI) in interprofessional groups of 3 to 4 students. Pre- and post-CGI surveys were designed to measure change in student attitudes and perceptions from the CGI experience. Questions were taken from the Attitude Towards Helping Others (AHO) scale and the Zarit Burden Interview Screen (ZBIS). RESULTS: Analysis indicated a significant change in responses for one of the four AHO statements and significant correlation between caregiver ZBIS score and student post-CGI ZBIS score. CONCLUSION: Quantitative outcomes support the use of this strategy to promote changes in student attitudes that might lead to caring and compassion when interacting with caregivers and the recipients of their care. The variability of caregiver ZBIS scores is consistent with the literature on caregiver burden and emphasizes the need for students to appreciate the individuality of the caregiver experience.

A Novel and Cost-Effective Method for Evaluating Cardiopulmonary Auscultation Skills in Student Physical Therapists.

Sophisticated high-fidelity human simulation (HFHS) manikins allow for practice of both evaluation and treatment techniques in a controlled environment in which real patients are not put at risk. However, due to high demand, access to HFHS by students has been very competitive and limited. In the present study, a basic CPR manikin with a speaker implanted in the chest cavity and internet access to a variety of heart and breath sounds was used. Students were evaluated on their ability to locate and identify auscultation sites and heart/breath sounds. A five-point Likert scale survey was administered to gain insight into student perceptions on the use of this simulation method. Our results demonstrated that 95% of students successfully identified the heart and breath sounds. Furthermore, survey results indicated that 75% of students agreed or strongly agreed that this manner of evaluation was an effective way to assess their auscultation skills. Based on performance and perception, we conclude that a simulation method as described in this paper is a viable and cost-effective means of evaluating auscultation competency in not only student physical therapists but across other health professions as well.

Discharge planning simulation: training the interprofessional team for the future workplace.

PURPOSE: The integration of interprofessional education (IPE) into health professions curricula offers a possible way to increase collaboration among health professionals. In this paper we introduce an innovative IPE model of a team-based discharge planning case scenario. METHODS: Occupational therapy, physician assistant, and physical therapy students (n=173) participated in a discharge planning simulation (DPS) focused on a patient with a stroke and subsequent hip fracture. A discharge-planning meeting DVD was developed and disseminated to the students. Pre and post surveys were sent to the students. OUTCOMES: Eighty-nine percent (n=153) of the students responded to the pre-DPS survey and 77% (n=132) responded to the post-DPS survey. There was no significant difference when comparing pre-DPS or post-DPS by program of study, but significant differences were found in three of the four questions when comparing individual answers. CONCLUSION: Participation in the DPS model resulted in significant changes in perception of a student's individual role as well as the role of their interprofessional team members in discharge planning for the complex patient. Preliminary results indicate that this model can be a useful tool to effectively teach the interprofessional team.

The Caring Professionals Program: educational approaches that integrate caring attitudes and empathic behaviors into health professions education.

Caring attitudes and empathic behaviors are considered by most Americans to be an essential and intrinsic element of appropriate health care, yet little attention is given to this in the curricula of most healthcare professional training programs. This paper describes an ongoing educational intervention to develop healthcare professionals with caring attitudes and empathic behaviors that will be sustained in their professional practice environments. The Caring Professionals Program was designed to enhance and redesign existing learning experiences in four academic programs: physical therapy, occupational therapy, physician assistant, and nurse practitioner. Students entering in the summer of 2009 were engaged in the initial program and study. Six educational elements were employed in the Caring Professionals Program: experience, reflection, problem-solving, didactic, active participation, and role modeling. Educational interventions were designed to be appropriate to the students' temporal progress through their programs, specifically the early, middle or late stages. The Caring Professionals Program may serve as a model for other allied health schools and also contribute to a college culture that supports caring and humanism.

From scholarly teaching to the scholarship of teaching: a retrospective look at strategies that foster the transition of scholarly work in allied health into credible forms of scholarship.

With heavy teaching loads and service expectations, many allied health faculty members find themselves in situations that limit their ability to engage in traditional research and scholarship of sufficient magnitude to meet institutional standards for promotion and tenure. Strategies that link teaching or service activities to scholarly productivity increase the potential for allied health faculty to build credible forms of scholarship and find their niche in the academy. To explore the viability of the scholarship of teaching in allied health, we reflect on the experience of a small group of allied health faculty members when they chose to engage in the process of transforming the scholarly teaching embedded in the design, implementation, and evaluation of an allied health project grant (AGElink grant) into the scholarship of teaching. Through retrospective reflection, we aim to clarify the strategies that emerged in the process and propose ways in which faculty members may implement such strategies in their teaching to further their career development.

Effective intervention strategies for management of impaired posture and fatigue with post-polio syndrome: a case report.

This case report describes effective intervention strategies that included gait training with the use of an acceptable, assistive device for the management of impaired posture and fatigue associated with post-polio syndrome. Review of videotaped gait-training sessions enhanced patient compliance with the assistive device, a single forearm crutch. The 49-year-old female acquired childhood polio with resulting leg length discrepancy, lower extremity weakness, and complaints of fatigue. She walked with a right ankle foot orthosis and increased right lateral trunk flexion during right stance. Interventions consisted of patient education regarding the diagnosis and management of post-polio syndrome, health promotion, and energy conservation strategies that included gait training with a single forearm crutch. An outcome measure not previously documented in the post-polio literature was used to measure the patient's perceived fatigue. Six-month and 18-month reexaminations found that the patient was compliant with the assistive device, reported a 30% reduction in fatigue, and walked with a more upright posture for longer distances in a shorter period of time. Patient education, health promotion, and energy conservation strategies that included walking with a properly fitting assistive device reduced perceived fatigue and improved posture and function in an individual with post-polio syndrome.