What Is Working for Practitioners: A Mixed Method Analysis Using the Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool.

Interprofessional practice (IPP) is thought to increase coordination of care and provide numerous benefits for clients and practitioners. While the importance of interprofessional education and practice has been emphasized in the literature and by numerous organizations including the World Health Organization, understanding what is working for practitioners is still elusive. Using the World Health Organization's framework regarding IPP and the Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) guidelines and competencies, this research attempted to identify what is working for practitioners when it comes to IPP and where opportunities for growth are still evident. The Collaborative Practice Assessment Tool was distributed to practitioners across disciplines, with a focus on speech-language pathologists and behavior analysts, and both qualitative and quantitative measures were analyzed to determine what reported IPP strategies are in use. Results indicated that practitioners are more similar than they are different when it comes to what is working with regard to the IPEC competencies (i.e., values/ethics for interprofessional practice, roles/responsibilities, interprofessional communication, and teams and teamwork) and where change is needed. Discussion and suggestions relevant to clinical practice were identified and a call for development of IPP training across and within disciplines based on IPEC competencies is recommended.

Differential Reinforcement of Low Frequency Behavior as an Interdependent Group Contingency for Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

An ABAB reversal design was employed to evaluate the effect of differential reinforcement of low (DRL) frequency behavior as an interdependent group contingency on the frequency of vocal disruptions of five males, 6-14-years old, diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. The results showed lower frequencies of vocal disruptions during intervention conditions as compared to baseline conditions; the combination of DRL and interdependent group contingency was effective at reducing the target behavior from baseline levels. Implications of concurrent interventions for the applied setting are discussed.