Inter-Professional education communication module (IPECM): A collaborative effort

Abstract

Background: Medical errors are the third most common cause of death, totaling more than motor vehicle accidents, firearms, suicide, and COPD combined, 70% of these errors are attributable to a failure in communication between healthcare professionals in different disciplines. Existing gaps in inter-professional training have resulted in students being unable to engage in effective communication while working in multidisciplinary teams, thereby contributing to the suboptimal quality of care and patient safety. Structured training in successful collaboration can not only decrease the burden on care providers and increase patient satisfaction but have also been shown to increase patient safety and quality of care1. Improving inter-professional communication would assist in preparing healthcare professionals for effective future collaborations with patients, families, communities, and other healthcare professionals, in the field2. Three of the sub-competencies of communication defined by the Interprofessional Education Collaboration3 were explored: Express one’s knowledge and opinions to team members, listen actively and encourage ideas and opinions of other team members, recognize how one’s uniqueness contributes to effective communication, conflict resolution, and positive interprofessional working relationships. Actions, Methods, or Intervention: This module is designed by team Apollo from the third IPL cohort (2018-2019) to create an asynchronous online foundational module, such that by the end of the module, students from different disciplines will be able to demonstrate the knowledge necessary to function and communicate more effectively in an interprofessional team caring for a person with a complex health condition. After researching the potential barriers to effective communication across different professions and disciplines in clinical settings, the team decided to cover three sub-competencies of the IPEC communication competency to achieve the goal, as mentioned earlier. CC3 - Express one’s knowledge and opinions to team members involved in patient care and population health improvement with confidence, clarity, and respect, working to ensure a common understanding of information, treatment, care decisions, and population health programs and policies. CC4 - Listen actively & encourage ideas & opinions of other team members. CC7 - Recognize how one’s uniqueness (experience level, expertise, culture, power, and hierarchy within the health team) contributes to effective communication, conflict resolution, and positive interprofessional working relationships. This module is designed for 8 hours of learning activities for students from different health professions and disciplines. Depending on the course, it can be completed within 4 weeks. Dr. Amini used the module in his IPE for the Public Health course at UM-F in fall 2019 to pilot and test the module's effectiveness. The results, presented at the Evidence-Based Lilly Conference, revealed that the module effectively improved “Interprofessional Interaction,” “Interprofessional Relationships,” and “Communication and Teamwork.” However, we needed more data and students from different disciplines to take the module. We used the module in a learning environment where students from Occupational Therapy (doctoral-level) and Public Health (graduate) interacted to learn about, from, and each other in fall 2020. We used the University of West England questionnaire to assess the pre and post-test scores in four areas: Communication and Teamwork, Interprofessional Learning, Interprofessional Interaction, and Interprofessional Relationship. Results: The results of the Wilcoxon Signed-Rank test showed that Communication and Teamwork and Interprofessional Relationship were significantly improved after taking the module. Comparing these results with the last year, when only public health students took the module, the IPE module was more effective in improving the "communication and teamwork" and "interprofessional relationship" when OT students joined the module. Lessons Learned: The IPE Communication module can enhance the knowledge and skills of students when they have the opportunity to learn about, from, and with each other. Future Application and Next Steps: Based on the qualitative feedback we received from students, we plan to include some synchronous activities in the module. In fall of 2021, we will add students from respiratory therapy, physician assistant, and physical therapy to the IPE communication module.