Search Results (19)

Background: Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is considered fundamental for integrated, high-quality woman-centered care. This study analyzes concordance/differences in the perspectives of midwives and physicians on IPC and Equitable Communication (EC) in prenatal/postpartum (PPC) and birth care (BC). Methods: The short form of the ICS Scale (ICS-R with eight items) adapted for the midwifery context, and the EC scale (three items) were completed by 293 midwives and 215 physicians in Germany. Profession- and the setting-specific differences were analyzed using t-tests and ANOVA with repeated measurements. Confirmatory factor analysis with nested model comparisons test the fairness of the scales. Results: Midwives’ ratings of all IPC aspects were systematically lower than physicians’ in both care settings (variance component professional group: η²_p = 0.227/ 0.318), esp. for EC (d = 1.22–1.41). Both groups rated EC higher in BC. The setting effect was less pronounced among physicians for the ICS-R items than among midwives. Violations of test fairness reveal validity deficiencies when using the aggregated EC sum score for group comparisons. Conclusions: Fundamental professional differences were found in the IPC assessment between physicians and midwives. The results enhance the understanding of IPC dynamics and provide starting points for action to leverage IPC’s potential for woman-centered care. Full article

Background: Indonesia’s stunting prevention programs have shown limited effectiveness and scalability. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is crucial for preventing and treating pediatric stunting. This study aimed to investigate the roles of primary health centers and IPC in addressing stunting in Indonesia. Methods: A systematic review was conducted, searching PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, ProQuest, and Google Scholar for studies up to November 2023. Two reviewers independently screened and included full-text articles that examined IPC and stunting, focusing on prevalence, policy implications, healthcare roles, community roles, preventive measures, and challenges. Results: The review included 52 articles. IPC was found to be critical in reducing stunting prevalence. Training improved the knowledge of health cadres, aiding in the early detection and prevention of stunting. The studies emphasized IPC’s positive impact on stunting reduction across various regions. Policymakers are encouraged to adopt a comprehensive strategy involving collaboration, financial support, and effective program implementation. Conclusions: This study highlights IPC as essential in reducing stunting in Indonesia. Integrating stunting management into primary healthcare is recommended, with a call for developing guidelines to standardize and optimize the approach to this public health issue. Full article

Student-athlete well-being is a key objective for individuals working with or for university athletic departments. This paper will describe how a university athletic department used a team approach to enhancing student-athlete health and well-being. The Interprofessional Education Collaborative (IPEC) Core Competencies of (1) Values and Ethics; (2) Roles and Responsibilities; (3) Communication; and (4) Teams and Teamwork provide a guiding framework for interprofessional collaboration. (IPC; Interprofessional Education Collaborative, 2023). However, significant barriers exist in implementing IPC in university athletic departments and little research exists on how to overcome these barriers in university athletic departments to enhance student-athlete wellness. To address this gap, this paper will first provide a review of the literature on athlete well-being, followed by an applied section that describes the experience of an interprofessional wellness team (IWT) consisting of a clinical sports psychology doctoral student, a licensed mental health professional, an athletic trainer, and a sports dietitian. A case vignette is used to demonstrate how IPEC core competencies are operationalized by the team to address athlete health and well-being through IPC. Recommendations on the further implementation of IPC centered around student-athlete well-being will be provided. Full article

Diabetes is a leading non-communicable disease with a huge and predictably increasing burden on individuals, societies and governments. Interprofessional education (IPE) aims to enhance healthcare providers’ competence and patient care by providing well-organised, coordinated interprofessional care (IPC) within teams of healthcare professionals of different disciplines. Interprofessional practices are crucial in diabetes care. However, evidence on the effect of diabetes-specific IPE on diabetes outcomes is limited. This study aims to survey and report recent findings on the impact of interprofessional approaches on the outcomes of diabetes management. A systematic search of PubMed and Google Scholar from 2008 was adopted to identify relevant studies. After screening for relevance, the studies used in this review were thematically analysed, and two main categories of the findings were isolated: the impact of IPE and IPC on enhanced care provision and on improved diabetes self-management. The results indicate that healthcare professionals and students and people with diabetes benefit from IPE/IPC to improve diabetes outcomes and quality of care. However, improving diabetes care is achieved when inhibitors are addressed to incorporate IPE in health professions curricula and to support IPC in clinical settings. Full article

Despite decades of research on the impact of interprofessional collaboration (IPC), we still lack definitive proof that team-based care can lead to a tangible effect on healthcare outcomes. Without return on investment (ROI) evidence, healthcare leaders cannot justifiably throw their weight behind IPC, and the institutional push for healthcare manpower reforms crucial for facilitating IPC will remain variable and fragmentary. The lack of proof for the ROI of IPC is likely due to a lack of a unifying conceptual framework and the over-reliance on the single-method study design. To address the gaps, this paper describes a protocol which uses as a framework the Quadruple Aim which examines the ROI of IPC using four dimensions: patient outcomes, patient experience, provider well-being, and cost of care. A multimethod approach is proposed whereby patient outcomes are measured using quantitative methods, and patient experience and provider well-being are assessed using qualitative methods. Healthcare costs will be calculated using the time-driven activity-based costing methodology. The study is set in a Singapore-based national and regional center that takes care of patients with neurological issues. Full article

Healthcare professionals often feel challenged by complex patients and the associated care needs during care transition. Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) is considered an effective approach in such situations. However, a fragmented healthcare system can limit IPC. This study explored experiences of Swiss healthcare professionals regarding complex patient care transition and the potential of IPC. Professionals from nursing, medicine, psychology, physiotherapy, dietetics and nutrition, social service, occupational therapy, and speech therapy were included. A qualitative between-method triangulation design was applied, with two focus group discussions and ten individual interviews. The combination of different data-collection methods allowed us to explore complex patient care transition and to systematically add perspectives of healthcare professionals from different care settings. Three main themes were identified: (1) Participants described their vision of an ideal complex patient care transition, i.e., the status they would like to see implemented; (2) participants reported challenges in complex patient care transition as experienced today; and (3) participants suggested ways to improve complex patient care transition by IPC. This study highlighted that healthcare professionals regarded IPC as an effective intervention to improve complex patient care transition. It emerged that sustainable implementation of IPC across care organizations is currently limited in Switzerland. In the absence of strong and direct promotion of IPC by the healthcare system, professionals in clinical practice can further promote IPC by finding hands-on solutions to overcome organizational boundaries. Full article

Professional students need to train in online interprofessional collaboration (IPC). During a longitudinal evaluation for 2018–2022 of an interprofessional learning (IPL) curriculum, nearly 7000 students from health, social care, and teacher education programs completed indicator questions concerning learning about child-related topics and skills required for IPC during their first, second, and third curriculum years of study. The students worked in student-led IPL groups according to a case-based learning approach. Online IPL yielded lower mean scores than in-person IPL. The decreased learning outcomes from year 2 to year 3 for the IPL initiative are not due to the online delivery mode. The lack of reported progress in the IPL courses is more likely due to students not experiencing a gain in IPL learning outcomes. Significant differences were found between teacher education and child welfare students and health and social care students, reflecting IPC challenges in working life. We conclude that online IPL is forward-looking because candidates must be prepared for online IPC and for helping users, such as children, online. Although our data support that IPL is complex, the learning experience has tremendous transfer value to welfare services because we assume that the same issues will appear in IPC. Full article

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) for older patient care among family physicians, dentists, therapists, nutritionists, nurses, and pharmacists in the rural hospital care of older patients could improve the hospital readmission rate. However, there is a lack of interventional studies on IPC for improving the readmission rate among Japanese older patients in rural hospitals. This quasi-experimental study was performed on patients >65 years who were discharged from a rural community hospital. The intervention was IPC implementation with effective information sharing and comprehensive management of older patients’ conditions for effective discharge and readmission prevention; implementation started on 1 April 2021. The study lasted 2 years, from 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022 for the intervention group and from 1 April 2020 to 31 March 2021 for the comparison group. The average participant age was 79.86 (standard deviation = 15.38) years and the proportion of men was 45.0%. The Cox hazard model revealed that IPC intervention could reduce the readmission rate after adjustment for sex, serum albumin, polypharmacy, dependent condition, and Charlson Comorbidity Index score (hazard ratio = 0.66, 95% confidence interval: 0.54–0.81). Rural IPC intervention can improve inpatient care for older patients and decrease readmission rates. Thus, for effective rural IPC interventions, family physicians in hospitals should proactively collaborate with various medical professionals to improve inpatient health outcomes. Full article

Collaboration in interprofessional collaboration (IPC) teams is a part of working in welfare services. Unlike uniprofessional supervision, interprofessional supervision involves supervisors and students with different educational backgrounds. This study explores 105 supervisors’ responses after synchronous supervision of 15,700 students from teaching, health, and social work education programs who participated in an annual preservice interprofessional learning (IPL) course from 2018 to 2022. The purpose was to explore supervisors’ experience of the online IPL supervisor role and of the student’s learning outcomes through a longitudinal mixed-methods repeated design. Response rates: 61%, 45%, 82% and 40%, respectively. The students worked in IPL groups with limited interaction with supervisors, using a case-based learning approach. The supervisors were supportive of IPL but suggested changes to increase relevance. The imbalance in the knowledge base on child-related topics and IPL preparedness among the student groups was challenging. Some questioned the need for supervision, whereas others were concerned about the limited time allocated for supervision. We conclude that online supervision is forward-looking because candidates must prepare for helping users, such as children and their next-of-kin, online. We deduce that online supervision is relevant for the future and less complicated than IPL supervision Full article

Higher education institutions must prepare students from health, social, and teacher education programs for interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among children and young people with challenging childhood experiences. We wanted to explore if digital small group rooms, breakout rooms, are feasible for students to learn about, from, and with each other in an interprofessional learning (IPL) initiative, in order to practice IPC. This study is a repeated cross-sectional study from the academic years 2020/21 and 2021/22 with 5412 students. The students worked in student-led IPL groups with a case-based learning approach and limited interaction with supervisors. The youngest students agreed to a larger extent that they learned more about, from, and with other students. The teacher students were more positive towards discussing sensitive issues in breakout rooms than the health students. The health students agreed to a larger extent than the teacher students that breakout rooms were suited for pre-service IPC training. The results from this study indicate that breakout rooms provide a potential arena to practice generic skills. If properly organized and structured, breakout rooms can be an excellent learning resource. Breakout rooms provide a safe online environment for learning and practicing IPC, and for training on talking about sensitive issues. Full article

This study aimed to evaluate the validity and reliability of the German and Italian versions of the Interprofessional Collaboration Scale (IPC scale) by applying a Rasch analysis. Data were gathered from 1182 nurses participating in a cross-sectional study in northern Italy. The scale demonstrated good reliability (Cronbach’s alpha = 0.92). Item polarity of all 13 items was positive, indicating good construct validity. However, revising one item would further improve the validity of the scale. Item stability was confirmed for work experience, workplace, age range, the language version, and gender. The analysis, applying a non-classical test theory, confirmed that the IPC scale is a valid and reliable instrument to measure interprofessional collaboration between nurses and physicians. Full article

Interprofessional education (IPE) activities are utilized in health education programs to develop interprofessional collaboration (IPC) competencies. All first-year healthcare students at three postsecondary learning institutions attend a mandatory introductory IPE event annually. During the 2020/2021 academic year, the event was moved from a face-to-face activity to a virtual format due to the COVID-19 pandemic restrictions. This study examined whether the virtual IPE activity was effective in supporting the development of interprofessional competencies for first-year healthcare students. Two hundred and six students attended a synchronous didactic presentation on IPE competencies and discussed a simulated case in interprofessional groups of eight students and two faculty facilitators. The Interprofessional Collaborative Competency Attainment Survey (ICCAS) was used to measure the students’ opinions on interprofessional competencies. Paired t-tests were used to compare the pre- and post-scores. One hundred and nine (52.9% response rate) students completed the survey. Surveys from 99 students with matched pre- and post-scores were included in the study. The ICCAS competencies showed improvements (p < 0.05) in all of the students’ self-reported IPE competencies following the activity compared to before the training. Our findings indicate that the virtual IPE activity is effective in facilitating the development of IPC for first-year healthcare students. Full article

The global spread of diabetes poses serious threats to public health requiring a patient-centered approach based both on interprofessional collaboration (IPC) given by the cooperation of several different health professionals, and patients’ perspective through the assessment of Patient-Reported Outcomes (PROs). The aim of the present study is to evaluate the impact of interprofessional collaboration interventions, for the management of type 2 diabetes in primary care settings, through PROs. A systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted querying the PubMed, Scopus and Embase databases. Out of the 1961 papers initially retrieved, 19 met the inclusion criteria. Interprofessional collaboration is significantly associated with an increase in both patient’s satisfaction (SMD 0.32 95% CI 0.05–0.59) and in the mental well-being component of the HRQoL (SMD 0.18; 95% CI 0.06–0.30), and there was also promising evidence supporting the association between an interprofessional approach and an increase in self-care and in generic and specific quality-of-life. No statistical differences were found, supporting the positive impact on IPC interventions on the physical component of the HRQoL, depression, emotional distress, and self-efficacy. In conclusion, the effect of IPC impacts positively on the few areas assessed by PROMs. Policymakers should promote the widespread adoption of a collaborative approach as well as to endorse an active engagement of patients across the whole process of care. Full article

Interprofessional collaboration (IPC) among health care professionals has been identified as essential to enhance patient care. Interprofessional education (IPE) is a key strategy towards promoting IPC. Several factors including the nature of facilitation shape the IPE experience and outcomes for students. Stereotypes held by students have been recognized as a challenge for IPE and IPC. This study aimed to explore institutional rules and regulations that shape facilitators’ work in IPE interactions problematized by students’ stereotypes at a university in Atlantic Canada. Employing institutional ethnography as a method of investigation, data were collected through observations, interviews, focus groups, and written texts (such as course syllabi). Participants included three facilitators, two undergraduate nursing students, and two IPE committee members of an IPE program. Findings revealed four work processes conducted by facilitators in local IPE settings related to students’ stereotypes. These processes were shaped by translocal discourse and included the work used to form teams, facilitate student introductions to team members, facilitate team dynamics, and provide course content and context. Study results included the identification of several strategies to address student stereotypes and enhance collaboration, including directions for future curriculum decisions and the pedagogical organization of IPE. Full article

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic, inflammatory autoimmune disease of the central nervous system mainly of adults ranging from 20 to 45 years of age. The risk of developing MS is 50% higher in women than in men. Most people with MS (PwMS) experience a spectrum of symptoms such as spasticity, continence dysfunctions, fatigue, or neurobehavioral manifestations. Due to the complexity of MS and the variety of patient-centered needs, a comprehensive approach of interprofessional collaboration (IPC) of multiple health care professionals (HCP) is necessary. The aim of this qualitative study was to explore the meaning of IPC in the comprehensive care of PwMS from a HCP perspective. Focus groups (FG) with HCP were conducted, recorded, and transcribed verbatim. The sample contained HCP from three MS clinics in different phases of care and rehabilitation. Four main categories emerged: (a) experience with IPC, (b) relevant aspects for IPC in patients’ treatment, (c) differences in in- and outpatient settings, and (d) influence of patient perspective. IPC plays a crucial role in HCP perspective when treating PwMS, which can benefit from an IPC therapeutic approach because HCP work together in a patient-centered way. The inpatient setting of HCP strongly supports the implementation of IPC. This prerequisite does not exist in outpatient settings. Full article