Interprofessional education faculty development survey: Perspectives on IPE and collaborative practice and COVID-19.

The cancellation of in-person classes in March 2020 due to COVID-19 caused a sudden shift in the educational experiences of health profession students enrolled at the University of Michigan (U-M). With the move to remote learning, educators engaging in interprofessional education (IPE) were faced with the challenge of preparing students for interprofessional collaboration from a distance. A survey was designed to investigate the impact of the pandemic on IPE practices and discover educator development needs. Faculty and staff from 10 health sciences schools within the U-M and Michigan Medicine were invited to complete a survey investigating their use of IPE competencies prior to, during, and after the pandemic; their development needs; and their ideas for future implementation of IPE and collaborative practice. Fifty-six percent of respondents reported their ability to teach IPE competencies was impacted by changes related to COVID. There was a significant (p ≤ 0.001) difference between self-report of incorporating IPE competencies prior to and during pandemic and during and into the future across all five competencies. Technology was reported as a challenge when teaching IPE, and a need for future faculty development. Leveraging virtual and case-based learning and increasing collaboration between schools were identified as ideas for future implementation.

Social Work Training in Palliative Care: Addressing the Gap.

As people live longer with chronic disease and serious illness in the U.S., palliative care teams are called upon to support patients and their families. Social workers are an integral part of the palliative care interprofessional team, and yet there are disproportionately few training programs for social workers who wish to specialize in this area. The curriculum of a post-graduate palliative care training program for social workers should be based on the current standards for palliative care and social work, as described by the National Association of Social Workers (NASW), Council for Social Work Education (CSWE) and the Center to Advance Palliative Care (CAPC). Trainees should develop skills to care for patients who have chronic or life-limiting illness, patients who are nearing their end of life, patients who are in the active dying phase and their families around end of life planning, medical decision making, grief and bereavement. A post-graduate social work training program that aims to prepare social workers to work in the field of palliative care should consist of clinical rotations at multiple sites, robust didactic curriculum and clinical supervision. Interprofessional learning is necessary and training should include opportunities for scholarly work, quality improvement activities, leadership, and teaching. Post-graduate training programs in palliative care will prepare future social workers to be experts in a sub-specialty skill set to meet the needs of people living with chronic disease. These needs and opportunities call on the social work profession to take action to develop post-graduate training programs in palliative care.

Improving the Interdisciplinary Clinical Education of a Palliative Care Program through Quality Improvement Initiatives.

Palliative care relies on a team approach to manage the complex needs of patients and families living with serious illness. This article describes an interprofessional team's aim to develop an interactive online curriculum in palliative care, with an emphasis on interprofessional education (IPE). The aim of the program is to address the need for formalized interprofessional palliative care education. The interdisciplinary team identified the need for formalized education efforts within our clinical space. To address the need, the team designed an online curriculum based in the core competencies of palliative care and IPE. A new model was established, with the themes of learning about "people," learning the "job," and learning "respect." The team followed the plan-do-study-act model to guide their process. The newly developed interprofessional online curriculum was utilized by palliative care trainees from various disciplines and levels of education. Pre- and post-tests to measure the knowledge, behavior, attitudes, and skills needed for teamwork and core palliative care competencies were completed. Forty-three medical and nursing students, undergraduate and graduate, completed the pretest, and 32 students completed the post-test. Results indicate that learners are growing in interprofessional skills and attitudes, but not in formalized knowledge of palliative care as a result of their clinical experience. Results suggest that more formalized knowledge may need to be provided to learners who come to this clinical experience, which could be delivered through the online curriculum. The knowledge survey should also be re-evaluated for clarity and content.

Evaluation Tools for Interdisciplinary Palliative Care Learning Experiences: A Literature Review.

Background: An interdisciplinary palliative care team began exploring evaluation tools used to assess changes in the knowledge, skills, and attitudes of learners participating in clinical learning experiences on an interdisciplinary palliative care consult service. This article will review existing evaluation tools, examine the themes that emerge, discuss their strengths and limitations, and make recommendations for continued development in the field. Methods and Findings: A literature search was performed using the MEDLINE database. Search terms included combinations of the following: interdisciplinary education, assessment/evaluation, and palliative care or palliative care assessment/test. Four hundred eighty-seven articles were captured during the initial search. Articles that focused on student readiness for interdisciplinary education and team self-assessments of current interdisciplinary collaboration practices were excluded. Nine articles were included in the review. Evaluation tools varied in terms of learner type, assessment type, and frequency. No tool was comprehensive in the assessment of knowledge, skills, and attitudes or truly interdisciplinary. Conclusions: There is a lack of comprehensive and interdisciplinary evaluation tools in the published literature. Further research should be conducted to develop a tool that meets the needs of learners in clinical experiences within an interdisciplinary service.