An Integrative Review of Interprofessional Collaboration in Health Care: Building the Case for University Support and Resources and Faculty Engagement.

BACKGROUND: In 2010, the World Health Organization issued a clarion call for action on interprofessional education and collaboration. This call came forty years after the concept of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) was introduced. AIM: To conduct an integrative review of interprofessional collaboration in health care education in order to evaluate evidence and build the case for university support and resources and faculty engagement, and propose evidence-based implications and recommendations. SEARCH STRATEGY: A literature search was conducted by an interprofessional faculty from a college of nursing and health sciences. Databases searched included CINAHL, Medline, Eric, Pubmed, Psych Info Lit., and Google Scholar. Keywords were interdisciplinary, interprofessional, multidisciplinary, transdisciplinary, health care team, teamwork, and collaboration. Inclusion criteria were articles that were in the English language, and published between 1995 and 2019. REVIEW METHODS: Thirteen interprofessional team members searched assigned databases. Based on key words and inclusion criteria, over 216,885 articles were identified. After removing duplicates, educational studies, available as full text were reviewed based on titles, and abstracts. Thirty-two articles were further evaluated utilizing the Sirriyeh, Lawton, Gardner, and Armitage (2012) review system. Faculty agreed that an inclusion score of 20 or more would determine an article's inclusion for the final review. Eighteen articles met the inclusion score and the data was reduced and analyzed using the Donabedian Model to determine the structure, processes, and outcomes of IPC in health care education. RESULTS: Structure included national and international institutions of higher education and focused primarily on undergraduate and graduate health care students' experiences. The IPC processes included curricular, course, and clinical initiatives, and transactional and interpersonal processes. Outcomes were positive changes in faculty and health care students' knowledge, attitudes, and skills regarding IPC, as well as challenges related to structure, processes, and outcomes which need to be addressed. Implications/Recommendations/Conclusions: The creation of a culture of interprofessional collaboration requires a simultaneous "top-down" and "bottom-up" approach with commitment by the university administration and faculty. A university Interprofessional Strategic Plan is important to guide the vision, mission, goals, and strategies to promote and reward IPC and encourage faculty champions. University support and resources are critical to advance curricular, course, and clinical initiatives. Grassroots efforts of faculty to collaborate with colleagues outside of their own disciplines are acknowledged, encouraged, and established as a normative expectation. Challenges to interprofessional collaboration are openly addressed and solutions proposed through the best thinking of the university administration and faculty. IPC in health care education is the clarion call globally to improve health care.

Illustrating and Analyzing the Processes of Interprofessional Collaboration: A Lesson Learned from Palliative Care in Deconstructing the Concept.

BACKGROUND: A basic tenet of palliative care is interprofessional collaboration. Palliative care educators and practitioners lead the way in responding to the Institute of Medicine's (2003) challenge to transform educational and health care systems through interprofessional collaboration. Through exemplary commitment to interprofessional collaboration, a college's academic and palliative care leader, in collaboration with Department Chairs and Directors of nursing and allied health professions, can illustrate and analyze the processes of interprofessional collaboration through the development of a simulated case study of a combat veteran with traumatic brain injury. METHODS: Methodologic components: (1) interprofessional development of a palliative care case study and (2) debriefing interviews regarding the experience of collaboration of interprofessional team members. RESULTS: The results provide the identification of steps of the interprofessional process and the shared and unique disciplinary competencies in determining a comprehensive health history, physical examination, identifying and prioritizing diagnoses, and determining collaborative discipline-specific interventions. Content analysis of debriefing team interviews provides a description of group composition, structure, process, development, and performance, as well as team member's perceptions of what fosters and challenges collaboration, benefits, and drawbacks, and what could have been done differently in developing an interprofessional initiative. DISCUSSION: Transformative change in healthcare education and clinical practice involves interprofessional collaboration of colleagues within, across, and beyond universities/colleges and healthcare systems and agencies. Advocating for teamwork has to go beyond talking about being a team player or not to having the language and behaviors we need to observe and measure. This article not only provides key processes in interprofessional collaboration but also identifies key attitudes and behaviors critical to teamwork. It provides a starting point to determine observable and measurable outcomes for interprofessional education, practice, and research. This article highlights expert behavior to move professionals from being novices in interprofessional collaboration to mastering the skills.

Interdisciplinary educational approaches to promote team-based geriatrics and palliative care.

Despite the increasing public demand for enhanced care of older patients and those with life-threatening illness, health professionals have had limited formal education in geriatrics and palliative care. Furthermore, formal education in interdisciplinary team training is limited. In order to remedy this situation, proactive interventions are being undertaken so that education and training in palliative care is being embedded within the training of physicians, nurses, social workers, as well as other associated health team members. This article discusses various educational approaches to interdisciplinary team-based geriatric and palliative care, highlighting the interdisciplinary didactic and clinical educational opportunities offered by an Interprofessional Palliative Care Fellowship Program, as well as an Associated Health Training Program at the Geriatrics Research, Education, and Clinical Center, Bronx Veteran's Medical Center. The article further describes the educational initiatives in palliative care offered through the Veteran's Integrated Service Network (VISN). Innovative educational strategies are discussed within the context of the existing literature on interdisciplinary health care team training.