Getting on the same page: an interprofessional common reading program as foundation for patient-centered care.

ABSTRACT

A primary goal of interprofessional education is to produce clinicians who practice collaboratively to provide patient-centered care. This exploratory study evaluated whether students' attitudes about a literary account of an illness experience endured after a year of professional and clinical education and if students applied lessons learned from a common reading to the delivery of patient centered care. Six focus groups were completed with health professions students and five main themes emerged from the focus group data. Themes include Seeing family members as stakeholders; Establishing common ground with peers and the larger reason for graduate school; Applying lessons to clinical practice that see the patient as a person; Experiencing an emotional connection with a story and its characters; and Taking alternative perspectives/stepping into the shoes of the patient. Study results are discussed in relation to the interprofessional education literature, with implications for educators and interprofessional curricula also presented. We conclude that a common reading program may provide an effective means for developing health professions students' knowledge and attitudes in the tenets of patient-centered collaborative care. It has the potential to build community through shared intellectual experience, facilitating meaningful reflection and perspective-taking in interprofessional learners.