Seeing the patient as a person in interprofessional health professions education.

Increasing prevalence of chronic disease leads to an increased need for person-centered care. To prepare future health professionals for this need, educational institutions provide interprofessional education in which they actively involve patients (hereafter called experts by experience). The organization of inter-institutional, interprofessional education with the active involvement of experts by experience poses challenges. To overcome these challenges, a joint student- and expert by experience-led organization was established, named Patient as a Person Foundation. This organization functions as the linking pin between three educational institutions. Jointly, they enabled the involvement of 181 experts by experience in interprofessional education and 1313 students from nine study programs over the course of two curriculum years. To facilitate joint education involving patients, Patient as a Person Foundation realizes three main activities: (a) recruitment and instruction of experts by experience, (b) enabling the inter-institutional organization of education and facilitating its logistics and financing, and (c) universal training of teaching staff. This interprofessional Education and Practice Guide aims to provide lessons on how to sustainably organize interprofessional education involving experts by experience across multiple educational institutions. The key lessons provided in this guide, underpinned by research and key literature, aim to inspire and enable similar initiatives elsewhere.

Development of a conversation approach for practice nurses aimed at making shared decisions on goals and action plans with primary care patients.

BACKGROUND: Primary care nurses play a crucial role in setting personal goals and action plans together with chronically ill patients. This may be a challenge for practice nurses, who are often trained to adopt protocol-based work routines. The aim of this study was to systematically develop a conversation approach, and a corresponding training course, for practice nurses aimed at making shared decisions about goals and actions with their chronically ill patients. METHODS: The 6-step iterative Intervention Mapping protocol was used as a framework. This paper describes the first four steps of the protocol. After the first step, in which literature studies as well as qualitative studies were conducted, the overall aim and objectives for the approach were formulated (step 2). In step 3, methods and strategies for the approach were chosen, which were translated into practical components in step 4. In addition, a pilot study was conducted. RESULTS: The main objectives of the approach focus on the ability of practice nurses to explore the patients' perspectives from a holistic point of view, to explicitly formulate goals and action plans, to tailor shared decision making about goals and action plans to individual patients, and to continuously reflect on work-related attitudes. The approach consists of a practical framework for shared decision making about goals and actions. The framework involves a tool for exploring patients' perspectives and a tool for identifying patient profiles, to facilitate tailoring shared decision making. A comprehensive training course for practice nurses was developed. CONCLUSION: We systematically developed a conversation approach, involving a practical framework with several tools, which aims to support practice nurses in making shared decisions about goals and actions with their patients. As practice nurses need support in their learning process to be able to share decisions with patients, we also developed a comprehensive training course for them. The approach and the training course were developed in close collaboration with important stakeholders. Some critical factors for the implementation of the approach were revealed. These factors will be addressed in the next step, a process evaluation (not part of this paper).

Interprofessional primary care team meetings: a qualitative approach comparing observations with personal opinions.

BACKGROUND: The number of people with multiple chronic conditions requiring primary care services increases. Professionals from different disciplines collaborate and coordinate care to deal with the complex health care needs. There is lack of information on current practices regarding interprofessional team (IPT) meetings. OBJECTIVES: This study aimed to improve our understanding of the process of interprofessional collaboration in primary care team meetings in the Netherlands by observing the current practice and exploring personal opinions. METHODS: Qualitative study involving observations of team meetings and interviews with participants. Eight different IPT meetings (n = 8) in different primary care practices were observed by means of video recordings. Experiences were explored by conducting individual semi-structured interviews (n = 60) with participants (i.e. health care professionals from different disciplines) of the observed team meetings. The data were analysed by means of content analysis. RESULTS: Most participants expressed favourable opinions about their team meetings. However, observations showed that team meetings were more or less hectic, and lacked a clear structure and team coordinator or leader. There appears to be a discrepancy between findings from observations and interviews. From the interviews, four main themes were extracted: (1) Team structure and composition, (2) Patient-centredness, (3) Interaction and (4) Attitude and motivation. CONCLUSION: IPT meetings could benefit from improvements in structure, patient-centredness and leadership by the chairpersons. Given the discrepancy between observations and interviews, it would appear useful to improve team members' awareness of aspects that could be improved before training them in dealing with specific challenges.

Successful participation of patients in interprofessional team meetings: A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: The number of people with multiple chronic conditions increases as a result of ageing. To deal with the complex health-care needs of these patients, it is important that health-care professionals collaborate in interprofessional teams. To deliver patient-centred care, it is often recommended to include the patient as a member of the team. OBJECTIVE: To gain more insight into how health-care professionals and patients, who are used to participate in interprofessional team meetings, experience and organize patient participation in the team meetings. METHODS: A qualitative study including observations of meetings (n=8), followed by semi-structured interviews with participating health-care professionals (n=8), patients and/or relatives (n=11). Professionals and patients were asked about their experiences of patient participation immediately after the team meetings. Results from both observations and interviews were analysed using content analysis. RESULTS: The findings show a variety of influencing factors related to patient participation that can be divided into five categories: (i) structure and task distribution, (ii) group composition, (iii) relationship between professionals and patients or relatives, (iv) patients' characteristics and (v) the purpose of the meeting. CONCLUSION: Patient participation during team meetings was appreciated by professionals and patients. A tailored approach to patient involvement during team meetings is preferable. When considering the presence of patients in team meetings, it is recommended to pay attention to patients' willingness and ability to participate, and the necessary information shared before the meeting. Participating patients seem to appreciate support and preparation for the meeting.

Sustainable interprofessional teamwork needs a team-friendly healthcare system: Experiences from a collaborative Dutch programme.

The significance of effective interprofessional teamwork to improve the quality of care has been widely recognised. Effective interprofessional teamwork calls on good collaboration between professionals and patients, coordination between professionals, and the development of teamwork over time. Effective development of teams also requires support from the wider organisational context. In a Dutch village, healthcare professionals work closely together, and mutual consultations as well as interprofessional meetings take place on a regular basis. The network was created as a precondition for sustainable interprofessional teamwork in elderly care. However, several external barriers were experienced regarding the supportive structure and cooperative attitude of the healthcare insurer and municipality. The aim of the article is to examine these experience-based issues regarding internal organisation, perspective, and definition of effective teamwork. Complicating factors refer to finding the right key figures, and the different perspectives on team development and team effectiveness. Our conclusion is that the organisation of healthcare insurance companies needs to implement fundamental changes to facilitate an interprofessional care approach. Furthermore, municipalities should work on their vision of the needs and benefits of a fruitful collaboration with interprofessional healthcare teams. The challenge for healthcare teams is to learn to speak the language of external partners. To support the development of interprofessional teams, external parties need to recognise and trust in a shared aim to provide quality of care in an efficient and effective way.

What does it take to set goals for self-management in primary care? A qualitative study.

BACKGROUND: There is an increasing number of patients with a chronic illness demanding primary care services. This demands for effective self-management support, including collaborative goal setting. Despite the fact that primary care professionals seem to have difficulties implementing goal setting, little information is available about the factors influencing the complexity of this process in primary care. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to contribute to an understanding of the complexity of self-management goal setting in primary care by exploring experts' and primary care professionals' experiences with self-management goal setting and viewpoints regarding influencing factors. METHODS: A descriptive qualitative research methodology was adopted. Two focus groups and three individual interviews were conducted (total participants n = 17). Thematic content analysis was used to analyse the data. RESULTS: The findings were categorized into four main themes with subordinated subthemes. The themes focus around the complexity of setting non-medical goals and around professionals' skills and attitudes to negotiate and decide about goals with patients. Furthermore, patients' skills and attitudes for goal setting and the integration of goal setting in the time available were formulated as themes. CONCLUSIONS: Setting self-management goals in primary care, especially in family medicine, might require a shift from a medical perspective to a biopsychosocial perspective, with an increasing role set aside for the professional to coach the patient in expressing his self-management goals and to take responsibility for these goals.

Developing interprofessional care plans in chronic care: a scoping review.

BACKGROUND: The number of people suffering from one or more chronic conditions is rising, resulting in an increase in patients with complex health care demands. Interprofessional collaboration and the use of shared care plans support the management of complex health care demands of patients with chronic illnesses. This study aims to get an overview of the scientific literature on developing interprofessional shared care plans. METHODS: We conducted a scoping review of the scientific literature regarding the development of interprofessional shared care plans. A systematic database search resulted in 45 articles being included, 5 of which were empirical studies concentrating purely on the care plan. Findings were synthesised using directed content analysis. RESULTS: This review revealed three themes. The first theme was the format of the shared care plan, with the following elements: patient's current state; goals and concerns; actions and interventions; and evaluation. The second theme concerned the development of shared care plans, and can be categorised as interpersonal, organisational and patient-related factors. The third theme covered tools, whose main function is to support professionals in sharing patient information without personal contact. Such tools relate to documentation of and communication about patient information. CONCLUSION: Care plan development is not a free-standing concept, but should be seen as the result of an underlying process of interprofessional collaboration between team members, including the patient. To integrate the patients' perspectives into the care plans, their needs and values need careful consideration. This review indicates a need for new empirical studies examining the development and use of shared care plans and evaluating their effects.

Interprofessional collaboration regarding patients' care plans in primary care: a focus group study into influential factors.

BACKGROUND: The number of people with multiple chronic conditions demanding primary care services is increasing. To deal with the complex health care demands of these people, professionals from different disciplines collaborate. This study aims to explore influential factors regarding interprofessional collaboration related to care plan development in primary care. METHODS: A qualitative study, including four semi-structured focus group interviews (n = 4). In total, a heterogeneous group of experts (n = 16) and health care professionals (n = 15) participated. Participants discussed viewpoints, barriers, and facilitators regarding interprofessional collaboration related to care plan development. The data were analysed by means of inductive content analysis. RESULTS: The findings show a variety of factors influencing the interprofessional collaboration in developing a care plan. Factors can be divided into 5 key categories: (1) patient-related factors: active role, self-management, goals and wishes, membership of the team; (2) professional-related factors: individual competences, domain thinking, motivation; (3) interpersonal factors: language differences, knowing each other, trust and respect, and motivation; (4) organisational factors: structure, composition, time, shared vision, leadership and administrative support; and (5) external factors: education, culture, hierarchy, domain thinking, law and regulations, finance, technology and ICT. CONCLUSIONS: Improving interprofessional collaboration regarding care plan development calls for an integral approach including patient- and professional related factors, interpersonal, organisational, and external factors. Further, the leader of the team seems to play a key role in watching the patient perspective, organising and coordinating interprofessional collaborations, and guiding the team through developments. The results of this study can be used as input for developing tools and interventions targeted at executing and improving interprofessional collaboration related to care plan development.

Involving patients in undergraduate health professions education: What's in it for them?

OBJECTIVES: Patients have become more involved in research, policy, and health professions education. They are involved in teaching students competencies required for person-centred care, but patient benefits have not received proper attention. This exploratory study identifies how patient involvement in health professions education help patients to practice self-management and shared decision-making. METHODS: Individual interviews were conducted with patients (hereafter 'experts by experience') (N = 11) who participated in the Patient As a Person Module, organised for students of health professions in The Netherlands. Additionally, one of their healthcare professionals (N = 10) and family members (N = 9) were interviewed. Directed content analysis was used. RESULTS: Participants reported that sharing lived experiences helped experts by experience to reflect on their preferences regarding health and healthcare, accept their changed selves, and obtain a renewed sense of purpose. They reported gaining insight into the perspectives of healthcare professionals, which yielded more equal healthcare professional-patient relationships. CONCLUSIONS: Sharing their lived experiences with health and health care with students could help patients in practising effective self-management and participate in shared decision-making. PRACTICE IMPLICATIONS: Approaching patient involvement in health professions education from both the perspectives of students and experts by experience, as opposed to students alone, optimises its societal impact.

What makes it so difficult for nurses to coach patients in shared decision making? A process evaluation.

BACKGROUND: Primary care nurses play a crucial role in coaching patients in shared decision making about goals and actions. This presents a challenge to practice nurses, who are frequently used to protocol-based working routines. Therefore, an approach was developed to support nurses to coach patients in shared decision making. OBJECTIVES: To investigate how the approach was implemented and experienced by practice nurses and patients. DESIGN: A process evaluation was conducted using quantitative and qualitative methods. SETTINGS/PARTICIPANTS: Fifteen female practice nurses (aged between 28 and 55 years), working with people suffering from diabetes, COPD, asthma and/or cardiovascular diseases, participated. Nurses were asked to apply the approach to their chronically ill patients and to recruit patients (n = 10) willing to participate in an interview or an audio-recording of a consultation (n = 13); patients (13 women, 10 men) were aged between 41 and 88 years and suffered from diabetes, COPD or cardiovascular diseases. METHODS: The approach involved a framework for shared decision making about goals and actions, a tool to explore the patient perspective, a patient profiles model and a training course. Interviews (n = 15) with nurses, a focus group with nurses (n = 9) and interviews with patients (n = 10) were conducted. Nurses filled in a questionnaire about their work routine before, during and after the training course. They were asked to deliver audiotapes of their consultations (n = 13). RESULTS: Overall, nurses felt that the approach supported them to coach patients in shared decision making. Nurses had become more aware of their own attitudes and learning needs and reported to have had more in-depth discussions with patients. The on-the-job coaching was experienced as valuable. However, nurses struggled to integrate the approach in routine care. They experienced the approach as different to their protocol-based routines and expressed the importance of receiving support and the need for integration of the approach into the family physician practice. CONCLUSION: This study shows that changing practice nurses' role from medical experts to coaches in shared decision making is very complex and requires paying attention to skills and attitudes, as well as to contextual factors. Our results indicate that more time and training might be needed for this role transition. Moreover, it might be worthwhile to focus on organizational learning, in order to increase an organization's capacity to change work routines in a collaborative process. Future research into the development and evaluation of health coaching approaches, focusing on shared decision making, is necessary.

Suitability of a Programme for Improving Interprofessional Primary Care Team Meetings.

INTRODUCTION: Primary care is increasingly being confronted with complex health care demands stemming from both biomedical and psychosocial problems of people with chronic diseases. Interprofessional collaboration is needed to enhance person-centredness and coordinate care provision in an efficient manner, which should eventually result in high-quality and integrated care. In primary care, collaboration often occurs through periodic interprofessional team (IPT) meetings. We have developed a multifaceted programme (including a reflection framework, training activities and a toolbox) to enhance team functioning in terms of improved person-centredness and efficiency of meetings. The aim of this study was to evaluate the perceived suitability and potential impact of this programme. Eventually, findings of this evaluation should contribute to understanding the suitability of the programme and optimizing its design. METHODS: A prospective process evaluation was conducted, using a mixed-methods approach. Six primary care IPTs participated. Data collection included observations of team meetings, semi-structured interviews with team chairpersons, a focus group meeting, and a questionnaire for all team members. Qualitative data were analysed using directed content analysis and quantitative data using descriptive statistics. RESULTS: The results show that, on the whole, the programme was appreciated. Most progress was perceived regarding structure and organization. Chairs perceived increased awareness of person-centredness and team processes. They perceived the training activities as useful and instructive, and valued peer feedback and on-the-job coaching as the most effective strategies. Findings from the questionnaire showed a tendency in the desired direction for all variables. CONCLUSION: To conclude, the programme can be considered as a suitable approach for improving team functioning. However, enhancing person-centredness requires additional training/practice and on-the-job coaching. Lastly, the programme should be context-specific, flexible in use, and preferably delivered and mediated by an external facilitator at the workplace.

Development of a Customizable Programme for Improving Interprofessional Team Meetings: An Action Research Approach.

INTRODUCTION: Interprofessional teamwork is increasingly necessary in primary care to meet the needs of people with complex care demands. Needs assessment shows that this requires efficient interprofessional team meetings, focusing on patients' personal goals. The aim of this study was to develop a programme to improve the efficiency and patient-centredness of such meetings. METHODS: Action research approach: a first draft of the programme was developed, and iteratively used and evaluated by three primary care teams. Data were collected using observations, interviews and a focus group, and analysed using directed content analysis. RESULTS: The final programme comprises a framework to reflect on team functioning, and training activities supplemented by a toolbox. Training is intended for the chairperson and a co-chair, and aims at organizing and structuring meetings, and enhancing patient-centredness. Our findings emphasize the essential role of the team's chairperson, who, in addition to technically structuring meetings, should act as a change agent guiding team development. CONCLUSION: Findings show that the programme should be customizable to each individual team's context and participants' learning objectives. Becoming acquainted with new structures can be considered a growth process, in which teams have to find their way, with the chairperson as change agent.

Disentangling self-management goal setting and action planning: A scoping review.

INTRODUCTION: The ongoing rise in the numbers of chronically ill people necessitates efforts for effective self-management. Goal setting and action planning are frequently used, as they are thought to support patients in changing their behavior. However, it remains unclear how goal setting and action planning in the context of self-management are defined in the scientific literature. This study aimed to achieve a better understanding of the various definitions used. METHODS: A scoping review was conducted, searching PubMed, Cinahl, PsychINFO and Cochrane. Inclusion and exclusion criteria were formulated to ensure the focus on goal setting/action planning and self-management. The literature was updated to December 2015; data selection and charting was done by two reviewers. A qualitative content analysis approach was used. RESULTS: Out of 9115 retrieved articles, 58 met the inclusion criteria. We created an overview of goal setting phases that were applied (preparation, formulation of goals, formulation of action plan, coping planning and follow-up). Although the phases we found are in accordance with commonly known frameworks for goal setting, it was striking that the majority of studies (n = 39, 67%) did not include all phases. We also prepared an overview of components and strategies for each goal setting phase. Interestingly, few strategies were found for the communication between patients and professionals about goals/action plans. Most studies (n = 35, 60%) focused goal setting on one single disease and on a predefined lifestyle behavior; nearly half of the articles (n = 27, 47%) reported a theoretical framework. DISCUSSION: The results might provide practical support for developers of interventions. Moreover, our results might encourage professionals to become more aware of the phases of the goal setting process and of strategies emphasizing on patient reflection. However, more research might be useful to examine strategies to facilitate communication about goals/action plans. It might also be worthwhile to develop and evaluate goal setting/action planning strategies for people with different and multiple chronic conditions.

"They Are Talking About Me, but Not with Me": A Focus Group Study to Explore the Patient Perspective on Interprofessional Team Meetings in Primary Care.

BACKGROUND: The number of people with multiple chronic conditions receiving primary care services is growing. To deal with their increasingly complex health care demands, professionals from different disciplines need to collaborate. Interprofessional team (IPT) meetings are becoming more popular. Several studies describe important factors related to conducting IPT meetings, mostly from a professional perspective. However, in the light of patient-centeredness, it is valuable to also explore the patients' perspective. OBJECTIVE: The aim was to explore the patients' perspectives regarding IPT meetings in primary care. METHODS: A qualitative study with a focus group design was conducted in the Netherlands. Two focus group meetings took place, for which the same patients were invited. The participants, chronically ill patients with experience on interprofessional collaboration, were recruited through the regional patient association. Participants discussed viewpoints, expectations, and concerns regarding IPT meetings in two rounds, using a focus group protocol and selected video-taped vignettes of team meetings. The first meeting focused on conceptualization and identification of themes related to IPT meetings that are important to patients. The second meeting aimed to gain more in-depth knowledge and understanding of the priorities. Discussions were audio-taped and transcribed verbatim, and analyzed by means of content analysis. RESULTS: The focus group meetings included seven patients. Findings were divided into six key categories, capturing the factors that patients found important regarding IPT meetings: (1) putting the patient at the center, (2) opportunities for patients to participate, (3) appropriate team composition, (4) structured approach, (5) respectful communication, and (6) informing the patient about meeting outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: Patients identified different elements regarding IPT meetings that are important from their perspective. They emphasized the right of patients or their representatives to take part in IPT meetings. Results of this study can be used to develop tools and programs to improve interprofessional collaboration.